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" 1 683- 1 920 

The Fourteen Points and What Became of 
Them— Foreign Propaganda in the Public 
Schools — Rewriting the History of the 
United States— The Espionage Act and How 
it Worked— "Illegal and Indefensible 
Blockade" of the Central Powers— 
1. 000.000 Victims of Starvation— Our 
Debt to France and to Germany— The 
War Uote in Congress — Truth 
About the Belgian Atrocities— 
Our Treaty with Germany and 
How Observed— The Alien 
Property Custodianship- 
Secret Will of Cecil 
Rhodes— Racial Strains 
in American Life — 
Germantown Settle- 
ment of 1683 

And a Thousand Other Topics 

by 

Frederick Frankun Schrader 

Former Secretary Republican Congressional Committee 
and Author "Republican Campaign Text Book. 1898.** 



(i 



PREFACE 



WITH the ending of the war many books will be released 
dealing with various questions and phases of the great 
struggle, some of them perhaps impartial, but the majority 
written to make propaganda for foreign nations with a view 
to rendering us dissatisfied with our country and imposing still 
"•- -v,^^ ,it^^,n fiiA iVnorance. indifference and credulity of the Amer- 

NOTE 

The short quotations from Mere Literature, by President 

Wi -fvr'i raised 

oodrow Wilson, printed on pages II, 95, 166, 224, and 226 of ,, 

this volume are used by special arrangement with Messrs. Houghton g and 

Mifflin Company, 

A blanket indictment has been found against a whole race. That 
race comprises upward of 26 per cent, of the American people and has 
been a stalwart factor in American life since the middle of the 
seventeenth century. This indictment has been found upon tainted 
evidence. As is shown in the following pages, a widespread propa- 
ganda has been, and is still, at work to sow the seeds of discord and 
sedition in order to reconcile us to a pre-Revolutionary political 
condition. This propaganda has invaded our public schools, and can- 
not be more effectively combatted than by education. 

The contingency that the book may be decried as German propa- 
ganda has no terrors for the author, and has not deterred him from his 
purpose to deal with facts from an angle that has not been popular 
during the past five years. What is here set down is a statement of 
facts, directed not against institutions, but men. Men come and go; 
institutions endure if they are rooted in the hearts of the people. 

The author believes in the sacredness and perpetuity of our in- 
stitutions. He believes in the great Americans of the past, and in 
American traditions. He is content to have his Americanism measured 
by any standard applied to persons who, like Major George Haven 



PREFACE 



WITH the ending of the war many books will be released 
dealing with various questions and phases of the great 
struggle, some of them perhaps impartial, but the majority 
written to make propaganda for foreign nations with a view 
to rendering us dissatisfied with our country and imposing still 
farther upon the ignorance, indifference and credulity of the Amer- 
ican people. 

The author's aim in the following pages has been to provide a book 
of ready reference on a multitude of questions which have been raised 
by the war. It is strictly American in that it seeks to educate those 
who need education in the truth about American institutions and 
national problems. 

A blanket indictment has been found against a whole race. That 
race comprises upward of 26 per cent, of the American people and has 
been a stalwart factor in American life since the middle of the 
seventeenth century. This indictment has been found upon tainted 
evidence. As is shown in the following pages, a widespread propa- 
ganda has been, and is still, at work to sow the seeds of discord and 
sedition in order to reconcile us to a pre-Revolutionary political 
condition. This propaganda has invaded our public schools, and can- 
not be more effectively combatted than by education. 

The contingency that the book may be decried as German propa- 
ganda has no terrors for the author, and has not deterred him from his 
purpose to deal with facts from an angle that has not been popular 
during the past five years. What is here set down is a statement of 
facts, directed not against institutions, but men. Men come and go; 
institutions endure if they are rooted in the hearts of the people. 

The author believes in the sacredness and perpetuity of our in- 
stitutions. He believes in the great Americans of the past, and in 
American traditions. He is content to have his Americanism measured 
by any standard applied to persons who, like Major George Haven 



Putnam, feel prompted to apologize to their English friends for "the 
treason of 1776," or who pass unrebuked and secretly condone the 
statement of former Senator James Hamilton Lewis, that the Con- 
stitution is an obsolete instrument. 

Statements of fact may be controverted; they cannot be disproved 
by an Espionage Act, however repugnant their telling may sound to the 
stagnant brains of those who have been uninterruptedly happy because 
they were spared the laborious process of thinking for themselves 
throughout the war, or that not inconsiderable host which derives 
pleasure and profit from keeping alive the hope of one day seeing 
their country reincorporated with "the mother country" — the mother 
country of 30 per cent, of the American people. 

It is to arouse the patriotic consciousness of a part of the remaining 
70 per cent, that this compilation of political and historical data has 
been undertaken. 

European issues and questions have been included in so far only 
as they exercised a bearing on American affairs, or influenced and 
shaped public opinion, prejudice and conclusions. To the extent that 
they serve the cause of truth they are entitled to a place in these pages. 

THE AUTHOR. 
New York City, January, 1920. 



10 



Allied Nations in the War. — The following countries were at war 
with Germany at the given dates: 

Russia 1 August, 1914 

France 3 August, 1914 

Belgium 3 August, 1914 

Great Britain 4 August, 1914 

Servia 6 August, 1914 

Montenegro 9 August, 1914 

Japan 23 August, 1914 

San Marino 24 May, 1915 

Portugal 9 March, 1916 

Italy 28 August, 1916 

Roumania 28 August, 1916 

U. S. A 6 April, 1917 

Cuba 7 April, 1917 

Panama 10 April, 1917 

Greece 29 June, 1917 

Siam 22 July, 1917 

Liberia 4 August, 1917 

China 14 August, 1917 

Brazil 26 'October, 1917 

Ecuador 8 December, 1917 

Guatemala 23 April, 1918 

Haiti 15 July, 1918 

The following countries broke off diplomatic relations with 
Germany: 

Bolivia April 13, 1917 

Nicaragua < May 18, 1917 

Santo Domingo 

Costa Rica Sept. 21, 1917 

Peru. October 6, 1917 

Uruguay October 7, 1917 

Honduras July 22, 1918 

Alsace-Lorraine. — Dr. E. J. Dillon, the distinguished political writer 
and student of European problems, in a remarkable article printed 
long before the end of the war, called attention to the general mis- 
understanding that prevails regarding Alsace-Lorraine. He said that 
the two houses of the Legislature in Strasburg made a statement 
through their respective speakers which, "however skeptically it may 
be received by the allied countries, is thoroughly relied upon by Ger- 
many as a deciding factor" in the vexatious question affecting those 
provinces. 

The president of the second chamber, Dr. Ricklin (former mayor of 
Dammerkirch, then occupied by the French), declared solemnly in 
the presence of the Stadthalter that the two provinces, while desiring 
modification of their status within the German empire, also desired 
their perpetuation of their present union with it.. . . "The people of 
Alsace-Lorraine in its overwhelming majority did not desire war, 
and therefore did not desire this war. What it strove for was the 
consummation of its political status in the limits of its dependence 

11 



upon the German empire, and that settled, to resume its peaceful 
avocations. In this respect the war has changed nothing in our coun- 
try. We make this confession aloud and before all the world. May 
it be everywhere heard, and may peace be speedily vouchsafed us." 

"The speaker of the First Chamber, Dr. Hoeffel," continues Dr. 
Dillon, "also made a pronouncement of a like tenor, of which this is 
the pith: "Alsace-Lorraine particularly has felt how heavily the war 
presses upon us all, but selfless sacrifice is here, too, taken for 
granted. Our common task has knit the imperial provinces more 
closely together than before, and has also drawn more tightly their 
links with the German Empire." 

Under date of January 17, 1917, Mayor North, of Detweiler, was 
quoted in the press of that day: "Alsace-Lorraine needs no liberator. 
After the war, I am confident, it will know how to guard its interests 
without the inferference of any foreign power. The sons of the 
country have not bled and died in vain for Germany." 

North is of old Alsatian stock, as is also Former Secretary Petri 
of Alsace, who said, when the issue of the war was still undecided: 
"In view of the military situation, the reply of the Entente to Presi- 
dent Wilson's peace note is simply grotesque. It could hardly have 
used other words if the French were in Strasburg, Metz, Mayence, 
etc." 

At the National Congress of United Socialists, March 24, 19L3, 
Gustave Herve (quoting a dispatch from Brest to the New York 
"Times" of the day following), declared, "Alsace was German in race 
and civilization, and had been an ancient possession of Germany. 
One of the provinces naturally belonged to Germany and the other to 
France." 

Francis de Pressense, ex-deputy, declared: "Time has done its work. 
Alsace-Lorraine no longer wants to return to French rule." 

The last election to the Reichstag before the war showed that only 
157,000 out of a total vote of 417,000 voted for "protesting candidates," 
while 260,000 voted as Germans, not as separatists. 

Though forced to live several generations under French rule, it must 
be observed that the people of Alsace-Lorraine never ceased to be 
Germans. The proper mother tongue of a people is that in which it 
prays. The most distinguished Catholic pulpit orator of Alsace in the 
last century, Abbe Muhe, who died in 1865, was able only once in his 
life to bring himself to preach in French; and Canon Gazeau, of Stras- 
burg Cathedral, published in 1868 an "Essai sur la conversation de la 
langue Allemagne en Alsace," in which, in the interest of religion and 
morals, he energetically resisted the attempt to extirpate German 
speech. 

The population of Alsace, with the exception of the rich and com- 
fortable, in its thoughts, words and feeling was thoroughly German. 

12 



In a petition which was addressed in 1869 to the Emperor Napoleon 
by people of German Lorraine, we read as follows: "O, sir! How 
many fathers and mothers of families who earn their bread in the 
sweat of their brow impose upon -themselves the pious but none the 
less heavy duty of teaching their children the catechism in German 
by abridging in the winter evenings their own needful hours of sleep." 

In 1869 a radical journal was established by prominent republicans 
of Muhlhausen in the interest of propagating agitation against the 
French empire among the laboring people. This paper appeared only 
in the German language, and justified this course in the following 
words: "Because the majority, yes, the very large majority, of the 
Alsatian people is German in thought, in feeling, in speech; receives 
its religious instruction in German; loves and lives according to Ger- 
man usages, and will not forget the German language." 

The boundary established in 1871 was the true national and racial 
boundary, which had been destroyed by Louis XIV when Germany, 
after the Thirty Years War, was too weak to defend it, but which re- 
mained the boundary in the hearts of those on both sides until the 
French Revolution, when executions, deportations and process of 
ruthless extermination finally broke the spirit of resistance in the 
population and made it succumb in order to save itself from extinction. 

The attempt of the French to control the Rhine regions, though 
continued for centuries, has been a failure. "To one who has been 
through the documents," writes Raymond D. B. Cahill, in "The 
Nation" for July 26, 1919, "an astounding thing is the French picture 
of their former experience in ruling the Rhinelands. The student of 
that period sees little which should encourage the French to attempt 
a repetition of that experiment. Indeed, he is impressed with the 
futility of the nation's attempt to absorb a people of quite different 
culture. Although dealing with a people still unawakened by German 
patriotism, the French found eighteenth century Rhinelanders so diff- 
erent, so attached to their own customs and religion, that it took 
many years to overcome their resistance." 

It will again require the guillotine, the firebrand and the methods 
of violence employed during the French revolution to convert Alsace- 
Lorraine into a French possession. France has decisively declined 
to submit the question of the annexation to a plebiscite. The beautiful 
dream about the "redemption of our lost sons" has proved a delusion; 
hundreds of thousands of citizens have been transported by France 
in order to blot out the appearance that there was discontent. Abbe 
Wetterle, once a member of the German Reichstag, and one of the 
leaders of the pro-French movement, in his lectures, compiled in his 
book, "Ce qu etait 1' Alsace-Lorraine et ce quelle cera; I'edition 
Francaise illustree," Paris, 1915, said: "Soldiers who had participated 
in the battles of 1914 and had invaded Alsace-Lorraine, returned pain- 
fully disappointed. They reported, and their stories agreed in estab- 

13 



lishing them as reliable, that the civil population of the annexed 
provinces had betrayed them in the most outrageous manner." 

General Rapp, a descendant of Napoleon's famous marshal, whose 
family has been a resident of the province for 600 years, in a manifesto 
signed by him as a member of the "Executive Committee of the Re- 
public of Alsace-Lorraine," and addressed to Sir James Eric Drum- 
mond, general secretary of the League of Nations, says: "We, the 
representatives of the sovereign people of Alsace-Lorraine, protest in 
the name of our people against the systematic ruin of our homeland. 
The French government has usurped the sovereignty of Alsace- 
Lorraine. The sovereign people of Alsace-Lorraine was not con- 
sulted concerning the constitutional status of the future. We, repre- 
senting our people, personifying its sovereignty, assume the right to 
speak for the interests of the people of Alsace-Lorraine before the 
League of Nations. We are standing today at the parting of the ways 
in our history. The hour has come when the people are asking, 
'Shall it be revolution or self-determination?' Before that question 
is decided we appeal to the good sense of the world, which must know 
that until the Alsace-Lorraine question is solved beyond the limits of 
our country, two great nations will never know peace." 

This manifesto, dated Basel, August 25, 1919, informs the world that 
millions of francs were taken out of the treasury of the French gov- 
ernment to finance the reception committee of President Poincare 
and Premier Clemenceau in every city in Alsace-Lorraine, and for 
the payment of agents to inflame manifestations of joy, finding vent 
in shouts of "Vive la France"; that wagonloads of decorations for the 
receptions, French flags, banners and torches and Alsatian costumes 
especially manufactured in Paris, were imported for the occasion. 

The meager dispatches which reach the public in spite of the iron 
hand of suppression which is wielded in Alsace-Lorraine teem with 
accounts of anti-French demonstrations and the arrest and deportation 
of citizens. The police in October were reported exercising a hectic 
energy in searching houses in Strasburg; all business houses were 
directed to discharge their German employes, by order of Commissary 
General Millerand. Hundreds of persons were arrested in Rombach, 
Hagendingen and Diedenhoefen. The people were taken in auto- 
mobiles to Metz, and after passing the night in the citadel, were de- 
ported over the bridge at Kehl the next day. 

A dispatch of October 27, 1919, says: "Another trainload of 
wounded Frenchmen has arrived at the main station at Mayence. 
They are said to come from the Saar Valley and Alsace-Lorraine. It 
is reported of the revolt in the Saar that the men sang, 'We will 
triumph over France and die for Germany.' The band which played 
'Die Wacht am Rhein' and 'Deutschland Ueber Alles* was subjected 
to a heavy fine, which was immediately paid by a leading industrial, 
in consequence of which the commandant was relieved of his office, 
14 



In Sulzbach, on the Saar, the French issued the following procla- 
mation: 

" 'Every person guilty of uttering shouts or grinning at a 
passing troop will be arrested and brought before a court 
martial for insulting the army. Every German official with cap 
or arm-emblem who refrains from saluting officers will be ar- 
rested and after an examination will be released. His name will 
be reported to general headquarters of the division.*" 

In the new electoral orders, 30 per cent, of the population of 
Alsace-Lorraine is disfranchised. The voters are divided into three 
classes, consisting of persons of French birth or pure French ex- 
traction; second, of children born of mixed marriages. In this class 
those only have the franchise who are the sons of French fathers 
married to German mothers. The third class, consisting of voters 
having a German father and an Alsatian mother, are completely dis- 
franchised. 

France is proceeding in Alsace-Lorraine as the English did in 
Acadia. "The Nation" of September 6, 1919, indicates the measures 
in the following article: 

Military measures for the punishment of troublesome French 
citizens of Alsace-Lorraine are quoted in the following extract 
from "L'Humanite" of July 16: 

"Citizen Grumbach spoke on Sunday, before the National 
Council, of the order issued recently at Strasbourg by M. Miller- 
and. a decree under which any citizen of Alsace-Lorraine who 
notably appeared to be an element of disorder would be im- 
mediately turned over to the military authorities. 

"This abominable decree, whose existence Grumbach thus re- 
vealed, is now known in its entiretv. It is to be found in "The 
Official Bulletin of Upper Alsace," No. 25, June 21, 1919. Its 
title is "Decree Relative to Citizens of Alsace-Lorraine^ in Re- 
newable Detachment" (sic). Order is given to the municipalities 
to draw up lists of citizens of Alsace-Lorraine in renewable de- 
tachment. 

"And here is what Article 2 of this strange decree says: 

"I. Every citizen of Alsace-Lorraine whose class has not yet 
been demobilized in France, and who notably appears to be a 
disorderly element, shall be immediately, upon the order of the 
Commandant of the District, arrested by the police and turned 
over to the militarv authorities. 

"His papers will be sent by the Commandant to the command- 
ing general of the territory, who, after inquiry, will command 
the return of the arrested man: 

"To his old organization if he was a volunteer in the French 
armv; 

"To the Alsace-Lorraine depot in Paris if he is a former 
prisoner of the Allied armies, or a liberated German soldier. 

"2. Citizens of Alsace-Lorraine whose class has been demobi- 
lized in France. 

"Any of these men who notably appears to be a disorderly cle- 
ment shall be arraigned by request of the Commissaries of the 

^— ^ 15 



Republic before the Commission de Triage under the same 
classification as undesirable civilian citizens of Alsace-Lorraine. 
"Strasbourg, 24 May, 1919. 

"Commissary General of the Republic, 
"A. MILLERAND." 

After this, who can be scandalized by the vehement criticisms 
directed at the National Council by Grumbach, against the state 
of siege and of arbitrary rule which the Government of the Re- 
public imposes upon Alsace-Lorraine? Does M. Clemenceau, 
that "old liberatarian" know the decree of Millerand? In any 
case it is important to know that this decree is not aimed at the 
Germans residing in Alsace-Lorraine, but at the citizens of 
Alsace-Lorraine of Category A, those indisputably French. In- 
credible, yet true! 

Americans Not An English People. — Careful computation made by 
Prof. Albert B. Faust, of Cornell University, shows that while the 
English, Scotch and Welsh together constituted 30.2 per cent, of the 
white population of the United States of the whole of 81,731,957, ac- 
cording to the census of 1910, the German element, including Hol- 
landers, made up 26.4 per cent, of the total, and constituted a close 
second, the Irish coming next with a percentage of 18.6. 

Total white population in the U. S. proper, 1910. . . .81,731,957 100% 
English (including Scotch and Welsh, about 

3,000,000) 24,750,000 30.2 

German, (including Dutch, about 3,000,000) 21,600,000 26.4 

Irish (including Catholic and Protestants) 15,250,000 18.6 

Scandinavian (Swedish, Norwegian, Danish) 4,000,000 4.8 

French (including Canadian French) 3,000,000 3.6 

'Italian (mostly recent immigration) 2,500,000 3. 

Hebrew (one-half recent Russian) 2,500,000 3. 

Spanish (mostly Spanish-American) 2,000,000 2.4 

Austrian Slavs (Bohemian and Moravian, old 

Slovac, etc., recent) 2,i000,000 2.4 

Russians (Slavs and Finns one-tenth) 1,000,000 1.2 

Poles (many early in 19th Century) 1,000,000 1.2 

Magyars (recent immigration) 700,000 .8 

Balkan Peninsular 250,000 .3 

All others (exclusive of colored) 1,181,957 2.1 

According to this table, more than twenty-six Americans out of 
every hundred are of German origin and about thirty out of every 
hundred only are either of English, Scotch or Welsh descent. Recent 
writers, like Dr. William Griffis, and Douglas Campbell ("The Puritan 
in Holland, England and America") have vigorously disputed the 
theory that the Americans are an English people. As Prof. Faust 
shows, only 30.2 per cent, of the mixed races of the United States are 
of English origin, while nearly 70 per cent, are of other racial descent. 

16 



Dr. Griffis wisely declares: "We are less an English nation than com- 
posite of the Teutonic peoples," and the great American historian, 
Motley, declared: "We are Americans; but yesterday we were 
Europeans — Netherlanders, Saxons, Normans, Swabians, Celts." 

"She (England) has a conviction that whatever good there is 
in us is wholly English, when the truth is that we are worth 
nothing except as far as we have disinfected ourselves of Angli- 
cism." James Russell Lowell in "Study Windows." 

"Most American authors and all Englishmen who have written 
on the subject, set out with the theory that the people in the 
United States are an English race, and that their institutions, 
when not original, are derived from England. These assump- 
tions underlie all American histories, and they have come to be 
so generally accepted that to question them seems almost to 
savor of temerity. . . . Certainly no intelligent American can 
study the English people as he does those of the Continent, 
and then believe that we are of the same race, except as mem- 
bers of the Aryan division of the human family, with the same 
human nature." — Douglas Campbell. "The Puritan in Holland, 
England and America," Chapter I. 

"The Germans were among the earliest and the most numerous of 
American settlers. The Anglo-Saxons are the acknowledged masters 
of the earth. The bulk of the early immigrants were of these two 
stocks. Examine the matter from any angle, and it is apparent that 
the American people are the direct, immediate descendants of world 
empire builders. 

"The American colonies were all settled by British, French, Germans, 
Spanish and other inhabitants of the north and west of Europe. The 
central and western Europeans played no part in the early history 
of the colonies. Colonial ancestry means the ancestry of the world's 
conquering peoples. 

"Immigration during most of the nineteenth century was from the 
same portion of Europe. The immigration records (kept only since 
1820) show that between that year and 1840 the immigrants from 
Europe numbered 594,504, among whom there were 358,994 from the 
British Isles [including, of course, the Irish — Editor] and 159,215 from 
Germany, making a total from the two countries of 518,209, or 87 per 
cent, of the immigrants arriving in the 20-year period. During the 
next 20 years (1840-1860) the total of immigrants from Europe was 
4,050,159, of whom the British Isles furnished 2,385,846, and Germany 
1,386,392, making for these two countries 95 per cent, of the whole. 
Even during the 20 years from 1860 to 1880, 82 per cent, of the immi- 
grants to the United States from Europe hailed from the British Isles 
and from Germany. During the most of the nineteenth century Euro- 
pean immigration was overwhelmingly British and German. 

"Nearly nine-tenths of the early immigrants to the United States 
came from these countries. They and the countries immediately ad- 

17 



joining them furnished practically all of the men and women who 
settled in North America from the earliest days of colonization down 
to 1880 — the beginning of the last generation. The American race 
stock is built around the stock of Great Britain and Germany." — Prof. 
Scott Nearing. 

(See "The German Element in American Life," elsewhere.) 
Whatever racial prejudice and political bias may attempt to do, 
philosophers and thinkers know that from the German race emanated 
the ideals of freedom and personal liberty which is the heritage of 
the whole world. To that great French thinkers, Montesquieu, Guizot 
and others have candidly testified, as have Englishmen, such as Hume 
and Carlyle. In describing the battle of Chalons in his standard 
work, "The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World," Prof. E. S. 
Creasy says: 

In order to estimate the full importance of the battle of 
Chalons we must keep steadily in mind who and what the 
Germans were and the important distinction between them and 
the numerous other races that assailed the Roman Empire; 
and it is to be understood that the Gothic and Scandinavian 
nations are included in the German race. Now, in two remark- 
able traits the Germans differed from the Sarmatic as well as 
from the Slavic nations, and indeed from all those other races 
to whom the Greeks and Romans have the designation of bar- 
barians. I allude to their personal freedom and regard for the 
rights of men; secondly to the respect paid by them to the 
female sex and the chastity for which the latter were celebrated 
among the people of the North. These were the foundations of 
that probity of character, self-respect and purity of manners 
which may be traced amonsr the Germans and Goths even dur- 
ing pagan times, and which, when their sentiments were en- 
lightened bv Christianity, brought out those splendid traits of 
character which distinguish the age of chivalrv and romance. 
CSee Prichard's "Researches Into the Physical History of Man.") 
What the intermixture of the German stock with the classic. 
at the fall of the western empire, has done for mankind may 
be best felt, with Arnold (Arnold's "Lectures on Modern His- 
tory") over how large a portion of the earth the influence of 
the German element is now extended. 

It affects more or less the whole west of Europe, from the 
head of the Gulf of Bothnia to the most southern promontory 
of Sicily, from the Oder and the Adriatic to the Hebrides and 
to Lisbon. It is true that the lansruage spoken over a large 
portion of this space is not predominantly German; but even 
in France and Italv and Spain the influence of the Franks. Bur- 
gundians, Visieoths. Ostrogoths and Lombards, while it has 
colored even the language, has in blood and institutions left 
its mark leeribly and indelibly. Germany, the low countries, 
Switzerland for the most part, Denmark. Norway and Sweden, 
and our own islands, are all in laneruage. in blood and insti- 
tutions. German most decidedly. But all South America is 
peopled with Spaniards and Portuguese; all North America and 
Australia with Englishmen. I say nothing of the prospects 

18 



and influence of the German race in Africa and in India; it is 
enough to say that half of Europe and all of America and 
Australia are German, more or less completely, in race, in lan- 
guage, in institutions or in all. 

It has been extravagantly modish to distort ethnological facts and 
set up new gods, but the assailants of the German race have not been 
able successfully to deny that tremendous influence which has given 
birth to the free institutions of the world, and there are not wanting 
among Americans of authority those who have been openly outspoken 
for the truth. President Garfield in his article on "My Experiences 
as a Lawyer" in the "North American Review" for June, 1887, p. 569, 
observed, alluding to a speech made by him on the death of his 
friend, Representative Gustav Schleicher of Texas in 1879: 

"We are accustomed to call England our fatherland. It is a 
mistake; one of the greatest of modern historians writing the 
history of the English people has said that England is not the 
fatherland of the English-speaking people, but Germany. I go 
into that and say, "The real fatherland of the people of this 
country is Germany, and our friend who has fallen came to us 
direct from our fatherland, and, not, like the rest of us, around 
by the way of England." Then I give a little sketch of German 
character, and what Carlyle and Montesquieu said, that the 
British constitution came out of the woods of Germany." 

In a like manner Charles E. Hughes, while governor of New York 
State, in a spech at Mount Vernon in 1908, said: 

Did you ever think that a very large portion of our people, 
despite their present distinction of home and birthplace, and 
even nationality, are descended from those common ancestors 
who a few years ago lived their life in the German forests? 
There were nourished the institutions of freedom; and if any 
one were to point to any place in the world to which, above all, 
we trace our free institutions, we would point, above all, to 
the forests of Germany. 

Americans Saved from Mexican Mob at Tampico by German 
Cruiser "Dresden." — The destruction of the little German cruiser 
"Dresden" by the British in the neutral waters of Chili, in March, 1915, 
must call up sentimental memories in the hearts of certain Americans. 
For it was the gallant little "Dresden" under command of Capt. von 
Koehler, that saved the lives of hundreds of American refugees who 
were surrounded by a bloodthirsty mob of Mexicans at the Southern 
Hotel, Tampico, Mexico, April 21, 1914. These fugitives had gathered 
from all parts of Mexico, expecting to be protected by the American 
battleships in Tampico Bay. But by some criminal short-sightedness 
the American ships were ordered to withdraw, and the Americans at 
the Southern Hotel were exposed to immediate death by a raging mob, 
when Capt. von Koehler entered upon the scene and threatened to lay 
Tampico in ashes if the mob did not disperse in fifteen minutes. He 

19 



then sent a squad of his blue jackets ashore and extricated the be- 
sieged people from their dangerous position. Two American yachts, 
hoisting the German and English flags, carried the refugees to a place 
of safety. Capt. von Koehler's gallantry was publicly acknowledged 
by Secretary of State Bryan. A special dispatch to the New York 
"Times," dated Galveston, April 27, stated that "the officers of the 
battleship 'Connecticut' said tonight that but for the action of the men 
of the German cruiser 'Dresden' there would have been bloodshed on 
Tuesday night." And "the refugees arriving on the 'Esperanza' sent 
this cable dispatch to the German Emperor: 

To your officers and men we owe our lives and pledge our 
lifetime gratitude. We salute you and the noble men of your 
Empire." 

Armstadt, Major George — After the sack of Washington, the burn- 
ing of the White House and the Capitol, in 1812, the British pro- 
ceeded to attack Baltimore. This action brought into great prom- 
inence two Americans of German desceitt. General Johann Strieker, 
born in Frederick, Md., in 1759, was in command of the militia, 
and Major George Armstadt commanded Fort McHenry. He was 
born in New Market in 1780 of Hessian parents. "If Armstadt had 
not held Fort McHenry during its terrific bombardment by the Brit- 
ish," writes Rudolf Cronau in "Our Hyphenated Citizens," a valuable 
little brochure, "our national hymn, 'The Star Spangled Banner,' most 
probably would never have been written." 

American School Children and Foreign Propaganda. — The tendency 
in some directions to picture George III as "a German King," in order 
to shift upon the shoulders of a historical manikin the responsibility 
for the American Revolutionary War, has gone so far as to attempt 
to blind the unthinking masses to the truth about our war of inde- 
pendence; but it should be remembered that if the responsibility 
rested wholly with this alleged "German King," then Washington, 
Jefferson and Franklin deceived the American people and the Declara- 
tion of Independence was a lie. In that event we have lived 140 
years of our history under a delusion and a fiction. It is eminently 
to the interest of English propaganda to create and strengthen this 
impression, and it is regrettable that no organized opposition has de- 
veloped to the attempt to inculcate into the minds of our school chil- 
dren the conception that but for this German King we should still 
be a contented colony of the British crown. 

How is this fiction fostered? 

Largely through the medium of certain important book publishers, 
who print school books, though the public is ignorant of the fact that 
the majority of these publishing houses are financed either by British 
or American circles closely intermarried or financially related to Eng- 
lish houses. 

20 



The movement to rewrite the history of the United States in the 
interest of England is so widespread and persistent that the chairman 
of the Americanization Committee of the Massachusetts Chamber of 
Commerce, in November, 1919, published an expose of his discoveries 
and conchisions as to the extent of the British propaganda, in which 
he said: 

To work among aliens to build up respect and loyalty for the 
United States while a stupendous plot is under way to destroy 
the very thing which we are pleading with these aliens to pre- 
serve is wasted effort. 
In view of the efforts to burden the shoulders of George III with the 
offenses that led to the Declaration of Independence while exonerat- 
ing the English people of any guilt, by representing him as a "Ger- 
man King" to the uninformed minds of our school children, it is 
pertinent to quote Lord Macaulay's description of George III: 

The young king was a born Englishman; all his tastes, good 
or bad, were English. . . . His age, his appearance and all that 
was known of his character conciliated public favor. He was in 
the bloom of youth; his person and address were pleasing. 
Scandal imputed to him no vice; and flattery might without any 
glowing absurdity ascribe to him many princely virtues. 
We find nothing in Macaulay to warrant the conclusion that George, 
a born Englishman in the third generation, was not complete master 
of the English language, as has been alleged; and, moreover, if he can 
reasonably be called a German, because of his German ancestry, it 
follows that the same allegation can be reasonably preferred against 
President Wilson, and that, because of his even nearer English an- 
cestry, he is really an Englishman and not an American — -an imputa- 
tion which his partisans would declare an absurdity on its face. 

A further proof of the vicious misrepresentation which describes 
George III singly and alone responsible for the cause of the Revolu- 
tion is contained in the words of our forefathers themselves. They 
must have known whom they were fighting, who tyrannized over them 
and who were trying to subjugate them. And this is what they said 
to the world: 

In every stage of these oppressions we hav€ petitioned for 
redress in the most humble terms. Our repeated petitions have 
been answered only by repeated inquiry. . . . Nor have we been 
wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned ^ 
them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend 
an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them 
of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. 
We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and 
we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to 
disavow these usurpations. They, too, have been deaf to the 
voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, 
acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and 
hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, 
in peace friends. 

21 



American School Children and English Propaganda. — The 

Encyclopedia Britannica says: "The notion that England was 
justified in throwing on America part of the expenses caused in the 
late war was popular in the country. . . . George III, who thought 
that the first duty of the Americans was to obey himself, had on his 
side the mass of the unreflecting Englishmen who thought that the 

^-^ first duty of all colonists was to be useful and submissive of the 
mother country. . . . When the news of Burgoyne's surrender at 
Saratoga arrived in 1777, subscription of money to raise new regi- 
ments poured freely in." 

It is not enough to disprove the absurd statement that the English 
people had no responsibility for the stamp act and the oppressions 
that were practiced against the American colonies, and that all these 
evils were the work of George III; it is vital for the American people 
to recognize the danger of the ultimate aim of the Anglo-American 
publishers who are supplying the public schools with histories in 
which the English are exalted and the Germans represented as our 
immemorial enemies, all contrary evidence notwithstanding. (See 
under "Frederick the Great," elsewhere.) 

Edward F. McSweeney, of the Americanization Committee of the 
Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce, in tracing the baleful propa- 
ganda, calls attention to a Fourth of July demonstration in London 
in 1917, during which George Haven Putnam, himself a native of 

\^ London, head of one of the largest book publishing houses in this 
country, made the following observations: 

The feelings and prejudices of the Americans concerning their 
transatlantic kinsfolk were shaped for my generation, as for 
the boys of every generation that has grown up since 1775, on 
text boks and histories that presented unhistorical, partisan and 
often distorted views of the history of the first English colonies, 
of the events of the Revolution, of the issues that brought about 
the War of 1812-15, and the grievances of 1861-1865. 

The influence of the British element in our population has 
proved sufficiently strong to enable the English-Americans to 
bring it under control and to weld it into a nation that, in its 
common character and purposes, is English. Text books are 
now being prepared which will present juster historical ac- 
counts of the events of 1775-83, 1812-15 and 1861-65. 

Americans of today, looking back at the history with a better 
sense of justice and a better knowledge of the facts than was 
possible for their ancestors, are prepared to recognize also that 
their great-grandfathers had treated with serious injustice and 
with great unwisdom the loyalists of New York and of New 
England, who had held to the cause of the Crown, 

It is in order now to admit that the loyalists had a fair cause 
to defend, and it was not to be wondered at that many men 
of the more conservative way of thinking should have convinced 
themselves that the cause of good government for the colonies 

22 



would be better served by maintaining the royal authority and 
by improving the royal methods than by breaking away into the 
all-dubious possibilities of independence. 

I had occasion some months back when in Halifax to apologize 
before the great Canadian Club, to the descendants of some of 
the men who had in 1776 been forced out of Boston through the 
illiberal policy of my great-grandfather and his associates. My 
friends in Halifax (and the group included some of my cousins) 
said that the apology had come a little late, but that they were 
prepared to accept it. They were prepared to meet more than 
half way the Yankee suggestion. 

During the present sojourn in England I met in one of the 
Conservative clubs an old Tory acquaintance, who, with char- 
acteristic frankness, said: 

"Major, I am inclined to think that it was a good thing that 
we did not break up your republic in 1861. We have need of /^^ 
you today in our present undertaking." 

The methods to be followed in the pursuit of the plan to induce us 
to repudiate our ancestors and their action are diverse and always 
devious. It begins with an agitation for "an orderly Fourth of July," 
in order to wipe out the memories of 1776, and it finds expression in 
insidious attempts to discredit our national poets, notably Long- 
fellow, for recording the rape of the Acadians in his "Evangeline," 
and for writing "Paul Revere's Ride." 

This foreign propaganda is supported by men like Putnam and even 
American writers like Owen Wister. For the Fourth of July issue of 
the London "Times" in 1919, Wister wrote an article in which he said: 

A movement to correct the school books (in America) has 
been started and will go on. It will be thwarted in every way 
possible by certain of your enemies. They will busily remind 
us that you burnt our Capitol; that you let loose the Alabama 
on us during the Civil War; they will never mention the good 
turns you have done us. They would spoil, if they could, the 
better understanding that so many of us are striving for. 

At the meeting of the House of Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church, at Detroit, October 11, 1919, a resolution was offered to ex- ly^ 
elude from the church hymnal "The Star Spangled Banner" and 
"America." In some of the public schools in New York copy books 
are furnished the children with a picture of General Haig and em- 
bellished with the British flag, and for some time pictures of a flag 
combining the American Stars and Stripes and the Union Jack in one ^ 
design were publicly exhibited for sale all over New York City. 

We read in the Prefatory Note to the revised edition of "English 
History for Americans," by Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Ed- 
ward Channing (1904) : "In the preparation of this revised edition, 
the authors have been guided by the thought that the study of English 
history in our schools generally precedes that of the United States." 

23 



There is obviously as strong a Tory sentiment in the United States 
as there was in 1776, 1779, 1808 and 1812, and the words of Thomas 
Jefferson, in his letter to Governor Langdon, of New Hampshire, are 
as true today as they were then: 

The Toryism with which we struggled in '77 differed but in 
name frdm the Federalism of '99, with which we struggled also; 
and the Anglicism of 1808 against which we are now struggling 
is but the same thing still in another form. It is a longing for a 
King, and an English King rather than any other. This is the 
true source of our sorrows and wailings. 

Again we hear the prophetic voice of Abraham Lincoln as it is 
borne to us like an echo of his speech at Springfield, 111., June 26, 1857: 

The assertion that "all men are created equal" was of no 
practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain and 
it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use. 
Its authors meant it to be — as, thank God, it is now proving itself 
— a stumbling block to all those who in after times might seek to 
turn a free people back into the hateful paths of despotislm. They 
knew the proneness of posterity to breed tyrants, and they 
meant when such should reappear in this fair land and commence 
their vocation, they should find left for them at least one hard 
nut to crack. 

England's chief propagandist is Lord Northcliffe. He owns the 
London "Times," and the latter, on July 4, 1919, clearly outlined in an 
editorial the method to be pursued in turning us from our ideals and 
making us forget the glorious traditions of the past. It said: 

Efficient propaganda, carried out by those trained in the arts 
of creating public good-will and of swaying public opinion as a 
definite purpose, is now needed, urgently needed. To make a 
beginning, efficiently organized propaganda should mobilize the 
press, the Church, the stage and the cinema; press into service 
the whole educational systems of both countries and root the 
spirit of good will in the homes, the universities, public and high 
schools, and private schools. 

It should also provide for subsidizing the best men to write 
books and articles on special subjects, to be published in cheap 
editions or distributed free to classes interested. Authoritative 
opinion on current controversial topics should be prepared both 
for the daily press and for magazines; histories and text books 
upon literature should be revised. New books should be added, 
particularly in the primary schools. Hundreds of exchange 
university scholarships should be provided. 

In this manner the article continues, revealing, in defiance of all 
sense of delicacy and discretion, the English attempt to undermine 
the foundations of our national life by tampering with the children of 
the public schools and the young men and women in the universities. 

The English campaign of propaganda invades the home, the school 
and the church; and has already assumed a degree of appalling bold- 

24 



ness in denying to America any substantial share in the issue of the 
World War. Protesting against a pamphlet, "Some Facts About the 
British," said to have been published "at the suggestion of the War 
Department," District Attorney Joseph C. Pelletier, of Boston, ad- 
dressed Secretary of War Baker as follows: 

I cannot believe that this pamphlet has come to your notice, 
for I cannot believe that you would suggest, far less authorize, 
any statement regarding the war which unduly lionized Great 
Britain and absolutely omitted any mention of the decisive share 
of the United States in the triumph of the Allied Powers. 

If the sinister plot, with its ramifications in our churches and uni- 
versities, our publishing houses and newspapers, is to be checked, 
it will be necessary to act so as to make it unprofitable for these 
interests to pursue their plans in quiet, and to seek by every means 
available to arouse something of the good old spirit of 1776 that 
prevailed throughout America until the aavcnt of the late John Hay 
as the first American ambassador to forget the traditions of his 
country and its experiences at the hands of England. 

How painful, how humiliating to every American, it should be to 
have the history of our national life for 144 years declared a forgery 
and to see it rewritten at the dictates of the champions of a foreign 
power who repudiate the stand of their forefathers. (See "Propa- 
ganda in the United States.") 

Astor, John Jacob. — "The inborn spirit of John Jacob Astor made 
America what it is," is the judgment passed upon this famous Ger- 
man American by Arthur Butler Hurlbut. Popular conception of 
John Jacob Astor's personality and work is based upon a collossal 
underestimate of his tremendous service in the cause of the com- 
mercial and economic development of the United States. More in- 
terest attaches to those things which appear adventurous in Astor's 
life than to the genius which inspired all his undertakings in pursuing 
unsuspected aims and converting into accomplishments objects that 
seemed impossible of accomplishment. Many picture him as a sort of 
Leatherstocking with an eye to business, a hunter and trapper, boldly 
invading the wilderness and making friends of the Indians, and who 
finally amassed an immense fortune from the fur trade. 

Truth is, only two millions represented the share of his fur trade 
in the total of twenty or thirty million dollars which constituted his 
fortune at the time of his death. The mythical John Jacob Astor was 
a creation of those who came after him; the real one appeared quite 
different to his contemporaries. His bier was surrounded by the lead- 
ing statesmen, financiers and scholars of the first half of the nine- 
teenth century, for they knew what today is either little known or 
forgotten, that his methods were those of a true pioneer and pathfinder. 

25 



None other than John Jacob Astor found the way of making Amer- 
ican commerce independent of England by getting around the English 
middleman in New York for the disposal of his products and shipping 
direct to the London market. It was he who opened the ports of 
China, then the foremost trading country of the Orient, to the Amer- 
ican ships, by securing this privilege direct from the East India Com- 
pany. It was Astor who made possible trans-continental intercourse 
and who opened the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific by the found- 
ing of Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia River. It was at the cost 
of a fortune, it is true, but, with a spirit of enterprise which remained 
unrivaled for sixty years after he had blazed the way. Knowledge is 
power; and Astor, equipped only with an education such as a village 
school afforded, had a genius for imbibing knowledge from every 
source and direction, and then to employ it to the full bent of his 
exceptional ability. 

His life ("Life and Ventures of the Original John Jacob Astor," by 
Elizabeth L. Gebhard, Bryan Pub. Co., Hudson, N. Y.) was crowded 
with anecdotal incidents of his ability and manner of gathering in- 
formation, always in the form of confidential chatter, or a simple ply- 
ing of questions. In this he was materially aided by a winning per- 
sonality, an open manner and inherent modesty, characteristics which 
clung to him even after he had become one of the leading and most in- 
fluential figures in the country, and which remained with him until 
his death. He was a man of natural nobility, who achieved great 
results during his life-time and left his descendants to complete what 
he had no time to complete himself. 

The author quoted, who is a great granddaughter of the Rev. Dr. 
John Gabriel Gebhard, pastor of the German Reformed Church in 
Nassau Street, New York, during the Revolution, and who was driven 
out of his pulpit through the machinations of the influential Tories 
then in New York, and forced to preach in Claverack in Van Rens- 
selaer County, on the Hudson, declares that however fondly attached 
Astor was to his adopted country, he never abandoned certain ideals 
instilled in him in the old German home and of which neither his ex- 
periences nor the radical changes surrounding one so young could 
ever divest him, ideals translated into German thoroughness, German 
love of industry and efficiency and German honesty, judgment and 
foresight, confidence and the guiding principle that knowledge is 
power. 

He enjoyed the friendship of many eminent men, and was very 
intimate with Washington Irving and Fitz-Greene Halleck, at the 
suggestion of the former leaving $400,000 to found the Astor Library 
in New York City. 

He was born in Waldorf, near Heidelberg, Germany, came to New 
York at the age of twenty with a few musical instruments, which he 
sold and the proceeds of which he invested in furs. He died March 

26 



29, 1848. His descendants only in part remembered the racial origin 
of the founder of their fortune, and one of them expatriated himself 
and in December, 1915, was made a baron by the King of England 
in recognition of his loyalty to the British Crown. 

Titled Americans. — The correspondent of the New York "Evening 
Post," writing from Paris after the armistice, commented on the 
power of propaganda through the medium of decorations bestowed 
on Americans by some of the foreign governments. The war has 
assuredly added a long list to the roll of titled Americans, Knights 
of the Garter and of the Bath and Chevaliers and Commanders of the 
Legion of Honor. Except Secretary Daniels and former Senator Lewis, 
practically all accepted the dignities with which they were invested 
at the hands of royalty. The cross of the Legion of Honor was 
established by Napoleon and historically is an imperial decoration. 

Prominent among those who had knighthood conferred upon them 
at the hands of the King of England were General Pershing, General 
Dickman, former Ambassador James W. Gerard, Oscar Straus, Col. 
C. Cordier, Brigadier General C. B. Wheeler and Major General 
George W. Goethals (Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael 
and St. George). Lieutenant General Robert L, Bullard was dec- 
orated by the King of Belgium with the Order of Leopold and made 
a Commander of the Legion of Honor. General Joseph H. Kuhn, 
former military attache at Berlin with the American embassy, was 
made a Commander of the Legion of Honor. James M. Beck, a 
famous Wall Street corporation lawyer, was made "a Bencher," an 
honor never before bestowed on an American, and he also received the 
Order of the Crown from the King of Belgium; Alfred C. Bedford, 
chairman of the board of directors of the Standard Oil Company, was 
made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor; Lieutenant Laurenc C. 
Welling of Mount Vernon received the order of a Chevalier of the 
Crown of Belgium; the Legion of Honor Cross was conferred on 
Dr. William T. Manning, rector of Trinity Church, New York; Otto 
H. Kahn was appointed by the King of Italy, Commander of the 
Crown of Italy, as was Major Julius A. Adler; J. M. Nye, chief 
special agent, in charge of King Albert's train in the United States, 
was given the order of Chevalier of the Order of Leopold; Elizabeth 
Marbury was decorated with the Medal of Queen Elizabeth of Bel- 
gium "in recognition of services rendered to Belgium since 1914." 

Others named to be Knights Commanders by the King of England 
were Brigadier General George Bell, Jr., Major General William 
Lassiter, Brigadier General John L. Hines and Brigadier General 
Charles H. Muir; Commanders of the Order of the Bath, Brigadier 
General Malin Craig and Brigadier General Harry A. Smith; Com- 
manders of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, Col. John Mont- 
gomery, Col. David H. Biddle, Col. William P. Wooten, Col. Horace 

27 



Stebbins. Several American naval officers were "promoted" and 
nominated in the Legion of Honor. 

Admiral Benson promoted to receive the Grand Cross of the Legion, 
while Admiral Mayo and Rear-Admirals Sims and Wilson are advanced 
to the grade of Grand Officer. Rear-Admirals Cleaves, Usher, Long, 
Griffin, Welles, Taylor and Earle become Commanders of the Legion. 

Dr. Henry van Dyke, former American ambassador to the Nether- 
lands, and Alexander J. Hemphill were made Chevaliers of the 
French Legion of Honor. 

Companion of the Order of Bath — Major General William L. Kenly. 
Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George — Brigadier 
General William Mitchell, Brigadier General George S. Diggs, Colonel 
Walter Kilmer and Major Harold Fowler. 

The widow of Col. Robert Bacon, who fell in action, was invested 
with the insignia on behalf of her husband of the order of British 
knighthood; Edward R. Stettinius was made a Commander of the 
Legion of Honor; the Order of the Crown was conferred on Elliot 
Wadsworth of Boston; Mrs. James Hamilton Lewis received a French 
decoration; Jacob A. Riis received the order of Danneborg from the 
King of Denmark. This list is only a partial one of Americans 
distinguished in the manner indicated, which prompted Arthur Bris- 
bane in his column in the New York "American" to observe: 

We shall have our little titled class in America, thanks to the 
British King's action. General Pershing is now "Sir John" — in 
England, anyhow, and here if he chooses. Our General Dick- 
•man, commander of the Third Army, is made a Knight Com- 
mander of the Bath. He will be "Sir Joseph" and his wife "Lady 
Dickman." Those that "dearly love a Lord" or a Knight are 
not all English. 

In England such men as Gladstone, Carlyle and others re- 
fused any title, setting too high a value upon their own dignity. 
Some American soldiers have missed an opportunity to take 
democracy seriously. 

Atrocities. — It is easily conceivable that had Germany been in- 
vaded early in the war by the joint world powers, instead of the 
reverse, there would have been a decided sentiment in favor of Ger- 
many instead of an increasing hatred which in a short time was ex- 
tended to people of German ancestry in the United States; it held 
them morally responsible for the alleged atrocities of the German 
armies in Belgium. When a paper like the New York "Sun" holds 
that "the Germans are not human beings in the common accepta- 
tion of the term," it cannot avoid the responsibility which that ver- 
dict imposes on every person of German lineage in America. It is 
therefore a matter of duty to investigate the testimony of respon- 
sible persons whether the Belgian atrocities had any existence in 

28 



the light in which they were presented. The administration shares 
this responsibility in having steadfastly ignored demands for the 
publication of the report on Belgian atrocities made by the British 
government early in the war and transmitted to the State Depart- 
ment by Ambassador Page at London. These atrocities were al- 
leged to consist of cutting off of hands of Belgian children, cutting 
ofif tongues, of mutilating the breasts of women, of outraging nuns 
and violating nurses, crucifying soldiers, etc. 

Now and then a conscientious voice was heard out of the universal 
cry of accusation such as represented by the following self-explana- 
tory letter addressed to the New York "Evening Post": 

To The Editor of the "Evening Post": 

Sir: Every man who has had a connection with the honorable 
British journalism of the past ought to thank you for your just 
and moderate rebuke of the pretended censorship which has 
passed off such a mountain of falsehoods on the public of both 
hemispheres. I suppose I am the Doyen of the foreign editors 
of London, and well I know that under Gladstone and Beacons- 
field it would have been impossible to find either writers or 
censors for the abominable fictions which have been spread in 
order to inflame the British masses against their German op- 
ponents. The tales of German officers filling their pockets with 
the severed feet and hands of Belgian babies, and German 
Catholic regiments deliberately destroying French Catholic 
Cathedrals, would decidedly not have been accepted by any 
editors of the "Times" or "Morning Post" in the days of Queen 
Victoria. 

The worst part of these infamous inventions has been that 
they have stirred up the blind fury of the English populace 
against tens of thousands of inoffensive and useful foreigners 
who have done nothing but good in a hundred honest profes- 
sions, and who are now, in the midst of savage threats and in- 
sults, torn from their industrious homes and thrust into bleak 
and miserable prisons without a single comfort on the brink 
of the wintry season. The spectacle is a hideous one, and the 
military censorship which has spread the exciting calumnies 
has gained no enviable place in truthful history. 

F. Hugh O'Donnell. 

Formerly foreign editor on the "Morning Post," "Spectator,'' 
and other leading journals. 

Melville E. Stone, general manager of the "Associated Press," in 
an address before the Commercial Club of St. Louis, early in 1918, 
as reported in the St. Louis "Globe-Democrat," of March 25, 1918, 
among other things made the following statement: 

One of the many rumors which I have investigated since the 
beginning of the war is that "the hands of Belgian children have 
been cut off." This is not the truth. Aside from all other 
proof, a child whose hands had been cut off would die if not 

29 



given immediate medical attention; any surgeon or physician 
will bear me out in this. 

The rumor was given currency by pro-Germans in this country, 
I believe, because it was so easy to deny it; they could assume 
on the strength of the proof of that denial that all other atroci- 
ties, of which there were innumerable instances, could be de- 
nied. 

I have investigated forty or fifty of such stories, and in every 
case have found them untrue. One of these statements came 
from the wife of a leading banker in Paris. She was asked 
where she had seen the child, and mentioned a certain railway 
station. Asked if she had seen the child, she replied she had 
seen a little girl with her hands wrapped up. She did not know 
the little girl. In reply to another question she admitted she had 
been told the child's hands had been cut ofif by Germans by a 
woman who stood on the platform near her. She had never seerx 
the woman before or after, and did not know her or know her 
name. 

"There is a little band of Catholic priests," he said, "who have 
been going into Belgium and Holland and hunting out chil- 
dren who have lost one or both parents or in the great excite- 
ment have become separated from their parents. They informed 
me in a letter that they had taken between 5,000 and 6,000 
children from these countries and found homes for them, and 
that they never had seen such a case and didn't believe they 
existed." 

On December 16, 1917, the Rev. J. F. Stillimans, a pupil of Cardinal 
Mercier, director of the Belgian Propaganda Bureau in New York, 
made a similar statement, singularly assigning the same reasons for 
the currency of the reports, namely, that they were inspired by 
"Germans." He said: 

I believe that the rumors as to mutilated children being in 
this country are started and circulated by the Germans them- 
selves for the sake of being able to declare them erroneous and 
to claim victoriously, though illogically, that all other accusa- 
tions are to be judged untrue, since in this particular case no 
proof is forthcoming. 

Because the proof was not forthcoming, the campaign was aban- 
doned, thus leaving in the lurch a great many supposedly honorable 
persons who had sworn to "the truth of what they had seen with 
their own eyes." 

B. N. Langdon Davies, an Englishman, speaking at Madison, Wis., 
as reported under date of December 5, 1919, said among other things, 
that the public had been fed on a great deal of misinformation, and 
that most of the German atrocities were manufactured by Allied 
press agents for the purpose of stirring up hate. 

The London "Globe" of November 1, 1915, said: 

In regard to the stories about German war atrocities, which 
are as mythical as the Russians in France, the "Globe" has 

30 



received numerous letters. Those who have until now given 
credence to these stories must realize that reports concern- 
ing atrocities which were never committed will tend to shake 
confidence in the accuracy of reports concerning innumerable 
barbarities which have been committed. These reports are still 
credited in many circles, and what is the result when investiga- 
tions are instituted? It can be expressed in one sentence which 
an official of the Committee on Belgian Refugees stated to a 
reporter of the "Globe" today: 

"We have not seen a single mutilated Belgian refugee in this 
country, nor have we found anyone who had ever seen one." 

The following extract is from the "Universe," London: 

A correspondent writing from Amsterdam states that a friend 
of his, a Catholic, who has visited many convents in Belgium 
with the object of testing stories of ill-treatment of nuns, 
makes the following statements. After careful examination^ it 
is evident that, with the exceotion of one or two isolated in- 
stances of rough treatment, Catholic nuns have nowhere suf- 
fered violence; on the contrary, this witness cites many examples 
of humane and excellent behavior on the part of the Germans, 
both officers and men. It is not to be assumed from the above 
that the gentleman quoted has made an exhaustive examination 
of all the convents in Belgium, but his evidence is noteworthy 
since he explicitly denies, on the authority of the nuns them- 
selves, the stories of violence that were spread abroad regard- 
ing two convents, one of which was at Malines and the other at 
Blaunpal. 

John T. McCutcheon, special war correspondent of the New York 
"World" and Chicago "Tribune," made this declaration in September, 
1914: 

In that time from Louvain to the French frontier at Beau- 
mont, there has not been a single instance of wanton brutality 
which has come under my observation. The widely dissemin- 
ated stories of German atrocities were found to be groundless, 
and I am sincerely convinced, after my association and the ob- 
servation of the officers and private soldier of the German 
columns with which I have traveled, that no army could go 
through a hostile country with fewer exhibitions of brutality. 

In a special dispatch to the New York "Times," dated London, 
October 16, 1914, Irvin S. Cobb, writes: 

In all my travels in the theater of war I have seen no 
atrocities committed by either side. I have seen men led away 
to execution, but only after thorough and ready justice of a 
drumhead court martial had been administered. Germany is 
full of stories of German Red Cross nurses with their breasts 
slashed by Belgians. 

A highly important witness in this connection is Emily Hobhouse, 
the well-known English philanthropist and writer. In October, 1916, 
Miss Hobhouse wrote an article for a British periodical, giving her 

31 



impressions of her visit to Belgium. She emphasized her astonish- 
ment at seeing so little of the terrible devastation which she had 
been led, by English newspaper reports, to expect. From her experi- 
ence in the South African war she was well aware that soldiers rule 

J with fire and sword, but she found nothing in Belgium to compare 
with the devastation of South Africa. While but 15,000 houses out of 
a total of 2,000,000 had been destroyed in Belgium, the houses of 

•J 30,000 farmers had been destroyed in the Boer war out of a relatively 
much smaller total, and whole cities and towns with their schools 
and churches had been made level with the ground. Even in cities 
like Liege and Antwerp, where the fighting had been fierce, she could 
discover no evidence of any extraordinary destructiveness on the 
part of the Germans, and the conditions in Louvain, which she had 
pictured as a place of ruins, fairly astounded her. 

In May, 1915, on his return from Europe, Ex-Mayor and Ex-Repre- 
sentative McClellan of New York, gave out a statement correcting 
the view so prevalent in American circles that Belgium was devastated. 

The following correspondenece will speak for itself: 

Rev. J. F. Matthews, Glossop Road Baptist Church, Sheffield. 

Dear Sir: — A correspondent informs us that on Sunday morn- 
ing you stated in the course of a sermon delivered in Wash 
Lane Church, Latchford, Washington, that there is a Belgian 
girl in Sheffield with her nose cut off and her stomach ripped 
open by the Germans and that she is still living and getting bet- 
ter. I am anxious to investigate stories of German atrocities 
and should be grateful if you could send particulars to me 
by which your statement could be authenticated. Faithfully 
yours, 

A. FENNER BROCKWAY, 
Editor of "Labor Leader." 

The Editor the "Labor Leader." 

Dear Mr. Brockway: I enclose our consul's letter, which T 
have just received. I am writing a letter to my old church at 
Latchford, to be read on Sunday next, contradicting the story 
which I told on what seemed to be unimpeachable authority. 
I am glad I did not give the whole alleged facts as they were 
given to me. With many thanks for your note and inquiry, 
I am, yours sincerely, 

JOHN FRANCIS MATTHEWS, 
March 12, 1915. 

(Enclosure.) 

Dear Mr. Matthews: Replying to your letter of the 9th inst., 
enclosing a letter which you have received from the "Labor 
Leader," although I have heard of a number of cases of Bel- 
gian girls being maltreated in one way or another, I have on 
investigation not found a particle of truth in one of them, and 
I know of no girl in Sheffield who has had her nose cut off and 
her stomach ripped open. I have also investigated cases in other 

32 



towns, but have not yet succeeded in getting hold of any tan- 
gible information. Yours very truly, A. BALFAY, 

Consulat du Royanne de Belgique. 
District War Refugee Committee for Belgians. 
March 11, 1915. 
Horace Green, a war correspondent, who spent many weeks in 
Belgium during the early stages of the war, in his book, "The Log 
of a Noncombatant," issued by the Houghton Mifflin Company, 
devotes the last chapter to a discussion of atrocities. Concluding 
that the stories of atrocities have been exaggerated a hundred fold, 
Mr. Green says: 

The reports of unprovoked personal atrocities have been 
hideously exaggerated. Wherever one real atrocity has oc- 
curred, it has been multigraphed into a hundred cases. Each, 
with clever variation in detail, is reported as occurring to a 
relative or close friend of the teller. For campaign purposes, 
and particularly in England for the sake of stimulating recruit- 
ing, a partisan press has helped along the concoction of lies. 

In every war of invasion there is bound to occur a certain 
amount of plunder and rapine. The German system of re- 
prisal is relentless; but the German private as an individual is no 
more barbaric than his brother in the French, the British, or 
the Belgian trenches. 
In the "Atlantic Monthly" for October, 1917, Prof. Kellogg, of the 
American Belgian Relief Commission, while severely arraigning Ger- 
many's treatment of Belgium, expressly states that he came across 
no instance of Belgian children with their hands cut off or women with 
breasts mutilated. 

Ernest P. Bicknell, Director of Civilian Relief, American Red 
Cross, in an article in "The Survey" in 1917, writes as follows: 

The world is familiar with stories of the atrocities charged 
against the German army in Belgium. In our travels in Bel- 
gium many of these stories came to our ears. In time we came 
to feel that a fair consideration of these reports required a 
careful discrimination between the conduct of individual Ger- 
man soldiers, and those operations carried on under the di- 
rection of army officers in accordance with a deliberately adopted 
military policy. 

Approaching this subject in accordance with this idea, we should 
classify the stories of mutilations, violations of women, kil- 
ling of women and children, etc., as belonging in the category 
chargeable against individuals of reckless and criminal character, 
who when opportunity offers, will gratify their lawless pas- 
sions. The stories of individual atrocities in Belgium, which 
have shocked the world, we found difficult to verify. While 
it is probable that such atrocities were occasionally commit- 
ted, I personally came in contact with no instance of that 
character during my travels about Belgium; nor did I discuss 
this subject with any person who had himself come in contact 
with such an instance. 

33 



In my opinion the verdict of history upon the conduct of 
the German army in Belgium will give little heed to these 
horrifying stories of individual crime. 

Testimony along the same line is furnished by Father Duffy, chap- 
lain of the 165th Infantry; the War Refugee Committee in London, 
George Bernard Shaw, General Pershing, General March and many 
others of equal standing, and furnishes an array of evidence that is 
strangely opposed to that of Mrs. Harjes, the wife of the partner 
of J. P. Morgan, that she personally saw Belgian children with their 
hands cut off, and of Cardinal Mercier, who stirred the heart of hu- 
manity when he declared that "forty-nine Belgian priests were tor- 
tured and put to death by the Germans during the occupation." It is 
a matter of record, however, that General Bissig, Governor General 
of Belgium during the occupation, forbade the Belgians to keep 
song birds that had been bereft of their eyes to make them sing* 
better. The order concludes: "The wilful blinding of birds is an 
act of cruelty which I cannot under any circumstances tolerate." 

Five reputable American correspondents on September 6, 1914, 
after tracing the German army in its invasion of 100 miles, sent a 
message to the American people that "we are unable to report a 
single instance (of atrocities) unprovoked. . . . Everywhere we 
have seen Germans paying for purchases and respecting property 
rights as well as according civilians every consideration. . . . To 
the truth of these statements we pledge our professional and personal 
word." The statement was signed by James O'Donnell Bennett and 
John T. McCutcheon, of the Chicago "Tribune"; Roger Lewis, of 
the Associated Press; Irvin S. Cobb, of the "Saturday Evening 
Post," and Harry Hansen, of the Chicago "Daily News." 

It has been said that Lord Bryce signed the official atrocity report 
and that his honored name raises it above suspicion. Lord Bryce 
is an old man and it is inferred that he signed the report in good 
faith without, however, having looked into the truth or falsity of 
the statements himself, accepting the word of others who were using 
him for their nefarious purpose, the intention being to incite American 
public opinion to action in behalf of the Allies. For Lord Bryce 
is flatly contradicted by the following cable message from London, 
taken from the daily papers of September 15, 1914: 

(Lord Bryce subsequently modified his position by a denial of 
the truth of the report as presented. — Ed.) 

London, Sept. 14, 3:23. P. M. — Premier Asquith told the House 
of Commons today that official information had reached 
the Ministry of War concerning the repeated stories that Ger- 
man soldiers had abused the Red Cross flag, killed and maimed 
the wounded, and killed women and children, as had been 
alleged so often in stories of the battlefields, 

34 



Joseph Medill Patterson: The Hague, September 11 — To the 
Chicago "Tribune": I firmly believe that all stories put out 
by the British and French of tortures, mutilations, assaults, 
etc., of Germans are utterly rubbish. 

A flat denial of the atrocity stories was furnished by a Washing- 
ton dispatch to the New York "World," five months after the inva- 
sion of Belgium. The report contained the substance of an official 
finding by the British government and was turned over to Ambassa- 
dor Walter H. Page for transmission to Washington upon the 
request of the American government. When Dr. Edmund von Mach 
subsequently requested the State Department for information about 
the finding, after returning one evasive reply. Secretary Lansing left 
Dr. von Mach's letters unanswered and the report has never been 
made public. Following is the Washington report referred to: 

Washington, Jan. 27. (Special to the "World")— Of the thou- 
sands of Belgian refugees who are now in England not one 
has been subjected to atrocities by German soldiers. This in 
effect is the substance of a report received at the State Depart- 
ment from the American Embassy in London. The report 
states that the British government thoroughly had investigated 
thousands of reports to the effect that German soldiers had per- 
petrated outrages on the fleeing Belgians. During the early 
period of the war, columns of the British newspapers were filled 
with these accusations. Agents of the British government, ac- 
cording to the report from the American Embassy at London, 
carefully investigated all of these charges; they interviewed 
alleged victims and sifted all the evidence. As a result of the 
investigation the British Foreign Office notified the American 
Embassy that the charges appeared to be based upon hysteria 
and natural prejudice. The report added that many of the Bel- 
gians had suffered severe hardships but they should be charged 
up against the exigencies of war rather than the brutality of 
the individual German soldier. 

According to advices from Switzerland, under date of July 9, 1916, 
the paper "Italia" printed the following: 

"Assisted by the Papal state department, the congregation of 
Catholic church officials instituted a searching inquiry into the 
reported German atrocities in Belgian convents, first among 
the Belgian prioresses resident in Rome, next among the Bel- 
gian nuns passing through, all of whom unanimously deny 
having any knowledge of the alleged atrocities. Bishop Heylen, 
of Namur, who was among those examined, declared that the 
reports referred to were lacking in every essential of truth. 
Possibly an isolated case had occurred without his knowledge, 
but certainly nothing beyond this. Cardinal Mercier, who was 
.. . also interviewed, spoke of three cases based upon hearsay. 
The Congregation deplored the spread of exaggerated reports 
lacking all semblance of truth and expressed it§ satisfaction 
with the results of the investigation/' 



To the last it was a favorite pastime to charge the Germans with 
wanton destruction of towns. Ample contradiction could easily be 
offered if space permitted. Thus William K. Draper, Vice Chairman 
of the New York County Chapter of the American Red Cross, is 
quoted in the New York "Times" of July 13, 1919: "A pitiful part 
of this destruction is the realization that much of it was caused by 
French artillery, the troops being forced to demolish the towns 
while being occupied and used by the Germans." 

The whole web of lies and the conditions underlying the scheme 
are conclusively exposed in "The Tragedy of Belgium," by Richard 
Grasshof, (New York: C. E. Dillingham Co.) 

The Belgian atrocities were purposely conceived and exaggerated 
for two reasons: 

1. To camouflage the fact that against all rules of civilized war- 
fare, the Belgians of Louvain and several other towns, claiming pro- 
tection as civilians, awaited an opportune time to institute a massa- 
cre of German soldiers who had entered and been stationed there 
approximately a week in apparently good relations with the popu- 
lation. 

2. It was expected that Germany and Austria would be surely in- 
vaded under the joint impact of the forces of Russia, France, Bel- 
gium, Servia, Montenegro, England and Japan. In that event the 
world would hear no end of Cossack, Servian and Montenegran atroci- 
ties committed on German women and children, as in the Balkan 
campaign. England had called into the field the Indians, Maoris, 
Zulus and other savage blacks and yellow skins; France had called 
the Moroccan natives and the Senegalese tribesmen, blacks who hang 
around their necks strings adorned with the ears and noses of their 
fallen foes. 

Forseeing that the ravages of these uncivilized warriors would 
excite the anger of the world against the Allies, if they ever crossed 
into German territory, that their deeds would bring the curses of 
the universe upon England's head, it was resolved to anticipate all 
possible criticism and reproach by being the first to charge atroci- 
ties against their enemies and thus to negative all counter charges, 
or to say that they were merely retaliatory measures adopted in 
reprisal for barbarous acts committed against their own men. The 
Allies never crossed the German lines, save in East Prussia, nor 
the Austrian-Hungarian border save in Galicia, and here the Cossack 
reign, short as it was, proved the shrewd wisdom of English and 
French foresight; 700,000 homes were wantonly destroyed in Galicia 
alone. Its lawlessness beggars description; but humanity was not 
staggered because the mind of the world had been drugged by 
fatal infusions of falsehood about Belgian babies and women maimed 
and brutalized by "German barbarians." 

36 



Prof. John W. Burgess, Charles Carleton Coffin ("The Boys of 
'61") and others have shown that precisely the same hysterical lies 
were circulated throughout England and the world by Englishmen 
during the American Civil War, the same kind of atrocities being 
charged against the Union Army. 

No paper has been more aggressive in charging the Germans with 
atrocities than the New York "Times." In its issue of April 17, 
1865, it said: 

"Every possible atrocity appertains to this rebellion. There is noth- 
ing whatever that its leaders have scrupled at. Wholesale massa- 
cres and torturings, wholesale starvation of prisoners, firing of great 
cities, piracies of the cruelest kind, persecution of the most hideous 
character and of vast extent, and finally assassination in high places 
— whatever is inhuman, whatever is brutal, whatever is fiendish, these 
men have resorted to. They will leave behind names so black, and 
the memory of deeds so infamous, that the execration of the slave^ 
holders' rebellion will be eternal." 

The late James G. Blaine quoted Lord Malmsbury of date February 
5, 1863, as accusing the Union troops guilty of "horrors unparalleled 
even in the wars of barbarous nations." 

All efforts to counteract the avowed campaign of misrepresenta- 
tion were denounced as the acts of men in the pay of the Kaiser 
or irreclaimable pro-Germans determined to lend aid and comfort 
to the enemy, and subjected any one attempting them to the penal- 
ties contained in the Espionage Act. In interpreting the act, as 
applied to the liberal press. Postmaster General Burleson was quoted 
as follows: 

"There are certain opinions and attitudes which will not be 
tolerated by the Post Office Department. For instance, such 
papers have sought to create in the minds of our citizens of 
German birth or descent the impression that Germany is fighting 
a defensive war; that the accounts of Belgian atrocities . . . are 
all English or American lies." 

To gainsay such an edict was to risk imprisonment for a term of 
twenty years. 

Bancroft, George — Treaty with Germany — Vancouver Boundary 
Line. — The very cordial relations which subsisted between the United 
States and Germany from the days of Frederick the Great were care- 
fully nurtured by the great men succeeding the establishment of the 
republic, as shown elsewhere by the comments of President Adams 
on the treaties with Prussia, and were strongly cemented by the aid 
extended the Union by Germany during the Civil War, as acknowl- 
edged by Secretary Seward and prominent members of the United 
States Senate. One of the most active promoters of this friendship 
was America's foremost historian, George Bancroft, Secretary of the 

37 



Navy under President Polk, and father of the Naval Academy at 
Annapolis, minister to Great Britain and subsequently to Prussia and 
Germany (1867-74). 

It was through his efforts and friendly personal relations with Bis- 
marck that a memorable agreement came into existence which estab- 
lished the right of immigrant German Americans to renounce their old 
allegiance and accept an exclusive American citizenship, exempting 
them from performing military service should they return to their 
native land. The effect of this agreement was more important than 
appears, as it was the first time that by a formal act the principle 
of renunciation of citizenship at the will of the individual was recog- 
nized. Beyond this, it led to a complete change of policy on the 
part of Great Britain by upsetting the old doctrine, "once an English- 
man, always an Englishman." The immediate good result was the 
renunciation by England of her claim to indefeasible allegiance, and 
to the right to impress into the British service a former British subject 
who had become an American citizen, a claim which had contributed 
to bring about the War of 1812. 

Nor was this all that Bancroft accomplished. The Northwestern 
boundary, having been settled by treaty, Bancroft, while United States 
Minister in Great Britain, had perceived an incipient effort of a great 
English interest to encroach on the territory which had been acknowl- 
edged by the treaty to be a part of the United States. 

By and by the importunities of interested persons in England, who 
possessed a great party influence, began to make themselves heard, 
and the British government by degrees supported the attempt to raise 
a question respecting the true line of the boundary of the Northwest 
and finally formulated a perverse claim of their own, with a view of 
obtaining what they wanted as a compromise. 

The American administration had of course changed, and the Presi- 
dent and his cabinet, having had no part in the negotiations, agreed 
to refer the question to an arbiter. They made the mistake of con- 
senting that the arbiter, if there was uncertainty as to the true 
boundary line, might himself establish a boundary of compromise. 
The person to whom the settlement of the dispute was to be referred 
was the president of the Swiss Republic. 

The American Secretary of State chanced to die while the method 
of arrangement was still inchoate. Bancroft at once wrote to the new 
Secretary, urging him not to accept a proposal of compromise, be- 
cause that would seem to admit an uncertainty as to the American 
title, and to sanction and even invite a decision of the arbiter in favor 
of a compromise, and would open the way for England, under an ap- 
pearance of concession, to obtain all that she needed. 

Being at the time minister to the court of Prussia, he advised the 
government to insist on the American claim in full, not to listen to a 

38 



proposal of compromise, but to let each party formulate its claim, 
and to call on the arbiter to decide which was right, and urged it 
to select for that arbiter the Emperor of Germany. 

The Department of State at once consented that the arbiter should 
be the Emperor of Germany, and left the whole matter of carrying 
out the American argument to Bancroft. The conduct of the ques- 
tion, the first presentation of the case, as well as the reply to the 
British, were every word by him, and the decision of the Emperor 
was unreservedly in favor of the United States. (Prof. William M. 
Sloane, in "The Century," for January, 1887). 

Bancroft has been pronounced one of the greatest historians of the 
past century; he was one of the most distinguished statesmen of his 
time, and as former minister to London and a student at Gottingen 
and minister to Germany, he was qualified as no other famous Amer- 
ican to form an appraisal of German, French and English policies, 
especially in regard to ourselves. We may be pardoned, therefore, in 
taking more than a cursory interest in some expressions which occur 
in a letter of Bancroft's, addressed to Hamilton Fish, then Secretary 
of State, and written at Berlin during the Franco-Prussian war. 

In summing up his reasons for preferring Germany over England 
and France, he says: "If we need the solid, trusty good will of any 
government in Europe, we can have it best with Germany; because 
German institutions and ours most resemble each other; and because 
so many millions of Germans have become our countrymen. This 
war will leave Germany the most powerful State in Europe, and the 
most free; its friendship is therefore most important to us, and has 
its foundation in history and in nature." ("Life and Letters of George 
Bancroft," by M. A. De Wolfe Howe, II, 245). 

Baralong. — An English pirate ship commanded by Capt. William 
McBride, which sailed under the American flag, with masked batteries, 
and sank a German submarine which had been deceived by the Stars 
and Stripes and the American colors painted on both sides of her hull. 
On August 19, 1915, the "Nicosian," an English ship loaded with Amer- 
ican horses and mules and with a number of American mule tenders 
aboard, was halted by a German submarine about 70 miles off Queens- 
town. The men took to the boats and the U-boat was about to sink 
the "Nicosian" when a ship flying the American flag came alongside. 
Without suspecting anything, the submarine allowed the ship to ap- 
proach, when suddenly the American flag was lowered and the English 
ensign hoisted, and a destructive fire was opened on the U. The latter 
soon sank. Half a dozen German sailors swam alongside of the 
"Nocosian" and clambered on deck, concealing themselves in the holds 
and engine rooms as the English followed them aboard. They were 
dragged out and murdered in cold blood. The German captain swam 

39 



toward the ''Baralong" and held up his hand in token of surrender 
but while in the water was first shot in the mouth and then repeatedly 
hit by bullets aimed at him by the English, and killed without com- 
punction. The story of the "Baralong" is one of the most brutal in 
the history of the seas and illuminates the inhuman character of 
English warfare toward a weaker foe in the most glaring light. The 
history of the tradegy first came to light through a letter written by 
Dr. Charles B. Banks, the veterinary surgeon aboard the "Nicosian," 
to relatives in Lowell, Mass., giving some of the gruesome details as 
follows: "A number of German sailors were swimming in the water. 
Some swam to our abandoned ship and climbed up to the deck. Shots 
from the patrol boat (the 'Baralong') swept several from the ropes. 
We were taken aboard the patrol boat, and then the boat steamed 
slowly around our ship while the marines shot and killed all the 
Germans in the water. As we had left three carbines and cartridges 
aboard the 'Nicosian,* we had reason to believe the Germans had found 
them. So marines went on our ship and killed seven men there. We 
were then towed to port." The infamous wretch who performed this 
murder, Capt. McBride, later wrote a letter to the captain of the 
"Nicosian," warning him not to speak of the affair, and requesting that 
the Americans aboard especially be cautioned to keep the matter from 
the public. But one of the American mule tenders made an affidavit 
to the truth at Liverpool and forwarded it to the American Embassy 
in London and three others made affidavit to the same facts on their 
return to New Orleans. The affidavits were sent to the State Depart- 
ment, but neither President Wilson nor Secretary Lansing complied 
with the request of the German Ambassador to demand an inquiry 
into the misuse of the American flag, and the cold-blooded murder 
of German sailors. Dr. Bank's letter was published in the N. Y. 
"Times" of September 7, 1915, but that paper was among the most 
active in preventing an investigation. 

Berliner, Emile — One of the most important inventors in the United 
States, distinguished for his improvements of the telephone; born at 
Hanover, Germany, May 20, 1851; came to the United States in 1870. 
Invented the microphone and was first to use an induction coil in 
connection with the telephone transmitters; patentee of other valuable 
inventions in telephony. Invented the Gramophone, known also as 
the Victor Talking Machine, for which he was awarded John Scott 
Medal and Elliott Crosson Gold Medal by Franklin Inst. First to 
make and use in aeronautical experiments light weight revolving 
cylinder internal combustion motor, now extensively used on aero- 
planes. 

The Boers — England's Record of Infamy. — The success in causing 
the surrender of the Boers by exterminating their women and children 

40 



by slow starvation and disease is the incentive which prompted the 
British nation to violate international law by stopping the shipment 
of non-contraband goods, Red Cross supplies and milk for babies, to 
Germany and contiguous countries. The number of deaths (in the 
Boer concentration camps) during the month of September, 1901, 
was 1,964 children and 328 women. There were then 54,326 children 
and 38,022 women under Kitchener's tender care. The "Daily News" 
on November 9, 1901, said: "The truth is that the death rate in the 
camps is incomparably worse than anything Africa or Asia can show. 
There is nothing to match it even in the mortality figures of the 
Indian famines, where cholera and other epidemics have to be con- 
tended with." "Reynold's Newspaper" (London) of October 20, 1901, 
spoke of "the women and children perishing like flies from confine- 
ment, fever, bad food, pestilential stinks and lack of nursing in these 
awful death traps," with a rate of 383 per 1,000. The "Sydney Bulletin" 
said: "The authority granted by Lord Roberts to Red Cross nurses to 
attend our camps has been withdrawn." The English wanted the wo- 
men and children to perish for want of Red Cross supplies, as 
in the case of Germany. President. Steyn of the Orange Free State, 
in a letter of protest to Lord Kitchener, dated August, 1901, among 
other things said: 

Your Excellency's troops have not hesitated to turn their ar- 
tillery on these defenseless women and children to capture them 
when they were fleeing with their wagons or alone, whilst your 
troops knew that they were only women and children, as hap- 
pened only recently at Graspan on the 6th of June hear Reitz, 
where a women and children laager was taken and recaptured by 
us, whilst your Excellency's troops took refuge behind the 
women; and when reinforcements came they fired with artillery 
and small arms on that woman laager. I can mention hundreds 
of cases of this kind. 

On December 16, 1913, the Boers, in the presence of immense 
throngs, dedicated a monument at Blomfontein with the following 
inscription: 

This Monument is Erected by the Boers of South Africa 
in memory of 

26,663 WOMEN AND CHILDREN 
who died in the Concentration Camps during the War 1900-1902 

No better evidence can be desired than is contained in a speech 
which the present British Premier, Lloyd George, made in 1901, 
charging that the English army had burned villages, swept away the 
cattle, burned thousands of tons of grain, destroyed all agricultural 
implements, all of the mills, the irrigation works, and left the territory 
a blackened, devastated wilderness. Then the women and children 

41 



were herded, in winter, in thin, leaky tents, surrounded by barbed 
wire fences, where thousands died of unnecessary privations. He said: 

Is there any ground for the reproach flung at us by the 
civilized world that, having failed to crush the men, we have 
now taken to killing babies? 

"Illegal, Ineffective and Indefensible Blockades."— The World War 
has evolved principles of warfare, upset practices and sanctioned 
acts that place war in a new aspect, present it as a new physical 
problem, like the discovery of a new planet. So many laboriously 
achieved understandings, agreements and principles of international 
law were swept overboard that the world must begin its efforts all 
over, if humanity is to regain the rights which it had slowly wrested 
from reluctant power during four or five centuries. 

The outstanding fact is the recognition of the right of a belligerent 
power to compel another to surrender by the starvation of its civil 
population. 

If this object were obtainable by direct blockade of the nation to 
be starved there would be some latitude for discussion; but when 
attainable only by so controlling the food supply of neutral nations 
as to leave them no alternative but to starve themselves or to help 
starve the power to be coerced, a new problem is created which will 
recur to vex those who sanctioned it. 

During the Civil War we sent food to the starving mill operatives 
of England who were exposed to famine by the war, although Eng- 
lish-built and equipped privateers were destroying our commerce, 
and England was actively supporting our enemies in other ways. Ger- 
many sent us food, chemicals, goods, shoes and necessary supplies 
in one of the most needful stages of the war, for non-contraband 
supplies were recognized as immune from seizure or destruction. 

A blockade is illegal unless it is effective in blockading the point 
named. The blockading of a whole nation and the rejection of the 
immunity character of non-contraband supplies intended for the civil 
population, down to the furnishings of the Red Cross, is an English 
expedient and a product of the late war, though the same policy was 
tentatively tried in England's war against the Boer republics. 

We held that such blockade was illegal, for in the note of October 
21, 1915, our State Department said: "There is no better settled prin- 
ciple of law of nations than that which forbids the blockade of 
neutral points in time of war," and we reminded the British govern- 
ment that Sir Edward Grey said to the British delegates to the "Con- 
ference assembled at London upon the invitation of the British govern- 
ment," that: 

A blockade must be confined to the ports and coasts of the 
enemy, but it may be instituted at one port or at several ports or 

42 



at the whole of the seaboard of the enemy. It may be instituted 
to prevent the ingress only or egress only, or both. 

And because England had violated these and numerous other prin- 
ciples, agreements, covenants and pledges we said to her: 

It has been conclusively shown that the methods sought to be 
employed by Great Britain to obtain and use evidence of enemy 
destination of cargoes bound for neutral ports and impose a con- 
traband character upon such cargoes are without justification; 
that the blockade upon which such methods are partly founded is 
ineffective, illegal and indefensible. . . . The United States, 
therefore, cannot submit to the curtailment of its neutral rights 
by these measures, which are admittedly retaliatory, and there- 
fore illegal in conception and in nature, and intended to punish 
the enemies of Great Britain for alleged illegalities on their part." 

But the State Department surrendered to the contentions of Eng- 
land. We submitted to countless outrages (see extract from Senator 
Chamberlain's speech under "England Threatens United States"); 
we made it unpleasant for native Americans who determined to send 
non-contraband goods across the seas; approved England's assump- 
tion of dictatorial control of the commerce of Holland and Scan- 
danavia and held that Germany was equally our enemy as England's 
on the ground that in using her submarines to sink merchant vessels 
feeding England she had violated our rights to the free use of 
the seas. 

In thus abandoning cardinal principles which made us a great 
nation and recognizing as effective, legal and justified, England's 
blockade of neutral nations, her right to confiscate non-contraband 
goods, to search and deprive Red Cross surgeons of their instruments, 
rifle our mail, remove American citizens from neutral vessels and 
incarcerate them, prevent Red Cross supplies from reaching the civil 
population and to do all the things we said she should not do, we have 
surrendered to Great Britain rights, powers and privileges that can 
hardly be justified unless we are about to dissolve our political insti- 
tutions and merge ourselves with England as one people — two souls 
with but a single thought, two hearts that beat as one. 

The point is that future wars will not be decided by the usual 
engines of war, but by the starvation of the civil population; this 
invests the nation having the largest fleet with a terrible weapon 
of annihilation; it makes England the arbiter of nations — it compells 
us to compact our own terrible power of destruction, for in making 
food the sine qua non of victory, fate has given us a factor',of far- 
reaching importance. And how will a nation menaced with extinction 
by famine retaliate? Will the inevitable consequence be tha^ the 
nation so threatened will meet starvation with the subtle poison germs 
of a malignant plague? 

43 



Brest-Litovsk Treaty. — It is an approved trick of political strategy 
to raise a hue and cry over one matter in order to divert attention 
from another, and by this token to accuse one's enemies, of treachery, 
baseness and all the sins in the calendar with a professed feeling 
of righteous indignation. Thus the Brest-Litovsk treaty between Ger- 
many and Russia, when the former was in a position to impose her 
terms as conqueror upon its beaten foe, was made to appear as an act 
of unexampled oppression. In the light of the terms ultimately im- 
posed upon Germany by the Paris Peace Treaty, it is interesting to 
examine the cardinal features of the Brest-Litovsk treaty. Under its 
terms as revised by the three supplementary agreements signed iii 
Berlin in August, 1918, several weighty concessions were made to 
Russia which insured her routes of trade and free ports in the Baltic 
provinces which were given their independence in accordance with 
century-long aspirations and revolutionary movements. Germany 
dropped her Caucasus claims and demanded that Russia should 
recognize the independence of Georgia, Finland, Ukrania, Poland, 
Esthonia and Livonia. Russia, desiring to assure herself of the rich 
territory with the naptha fields of Baku, Germany supported the wish 
on condition that Russia pledge herself to place a portion of the oil 
production at the disposal of Germany and its allies. The total in- 
demnity levied was 6,000,000,000 marks ($1,500,000,000) which Russia 
undertakes to pay, all sums lost by Germans up to July 1, 1917, 
through revolutionary confiscatory legislation being included. Inde- 
pendent courts were provided for the adjudication of claims and one- 
sixth of the indemnity was shifted to Finland and the Ukraine jointly. 
This was reputed to be the oppressor's toll unheard of in history — 
no milch cows, no horses, no surrender of the instruments of indus- 
try, no seizure of strictly Russian territory, independence for all 
states that had been struggling for independence. through long cen- 
turies, no occupied zones. 

"Bombing Maternity Hospitals." — Nominally a favorite occupation 
of the enemy throughout the war. The following was written by the 
late Richard Harding Davis in the Metropolitan Magazine for No- 
vember, 1915: "So highly trained now are the aviators, so highly 
perfected the aeroplane that each morning in squadrons they take 
flight, to meet hostile aircraft, to destroy a munition factory, or, if 
they are Germans, a maternity hospital. At sunset, like homing 
pigeons, in safety they return to roost." 

Creel and the "Sisson Documents." — George Creel, a Denver poli- 
tician, was appointed head of the Committee of Public Information 
pending the war, and was practically in control of the American 
press and the propaganda work. Exercising almost unlimited author- 
ity and directing general publicity at home and in Europe, including 

44 



the presentation of war films, many of the oppressive measures against 
the liberal press are justly charged to his account, at the same time 
that numerous measures inaugurated under his direction attracted 
widespread notoriety. Among others, the bureau issued to the Amer- 
ican press the notorious "Sisson documents." They consisted of a 
series of documents to prove that Lenine and Trotzky, heads of the 
Russian Soviet government, had taken German money and were, 
first and last, German agents. The New York "Evening Post" was 
quick to discern the forgery — they are said to have been written 
in London, translated into Russian in New York by two Russians 
and sent to Russia, where they were "discovered." For pointing out 
the internal evidence of their incredibility contained in the papers Mr. 
Creel charged the paper with being guilty "of the most extraordinary 
disservice" to the government of the United States and the nation's 
cause; claiming that it had impugned the good faith of the govern- 
ment and exposed itself to "the charge of having given aid and com- 
fort to the enemies of the United States in an hour of national crisis." 
The ultimate end was that the famous Sisson documents were proved 
to be clumsy forgeries and Mr. Creel subsequently claimed for them 
no more than that they made a good story. 

The Creel bureau cost the government about $6,000,000, and its 
affairs were found to be in hopeless confusion, according to official 
reports made to Congress, Creel being charged with gross negligence 
in handling the government's funds. In June, 1919, frauds in the 
handling of war films, involving huge sums of money and "the com- 
plicity of high officials" were charged in Congress. Mr. Creel's 
connection with the Sisson documents places him in no flattering 
light. In reply to a letter of protest against the publicity of the Sisson 
documents and the use made of them, he wrote: "Of course, you are 
entitled to your opinion, but T warn you it seems to border on 
sedition." While this bureau flagrantly compromised the reputation 
of the government and the American people by a piece of wicked 
fiction, to deny the authenticity of the Sisson documents was sedition. 

Cromberger, Johann. — A German printer who as early as 1538 es- 
tablished a printing office in the City of Mexico. 

Custer, General George A. — Famous American cavalry leader in 
the Civil War, and the hero of the battle of the Little Big Horn, 
Dakota, in which he and his command were destroyed by the Sioux 
Indians, June 25, 1876. Of German descent. Frederick Whittaker in 
"A Complete Life of General George Custer" (Sheldon & Co., New 
YorkJ876) says: "George Armstrong Custer was born in New Rumley, 
Ohio, 'December 5, 1839. Emanuel H. Custer, father of the General, 
was born in Cryssoptown, Alleghany County, Md., December 10, 1806. 

45 



The name of Custer was originally Kuster, and the grandfather of 
Emanuel Custer came from Germany, but Emanuel's father was born 
in America. The grandfather was one of those same Hessian officers 
over whom the Colonists wasted so many curses in the Revolutionary 
war, and were yet so innocent of harm and such patient, faithful 
soldiers. After Burgoyne's surrender in 1778, many of the paroled 
Hessians seized the opportunity to settle in the country they came to 
conquer, and amongst these the grandfather of Emanuel Custer, cap- 
tivated by the bright eyes of a frontier damsel, captivated her in turn 
with his flaxen hair and sturdy Saxon figure, and settled down in 
Pennsylvania, afterward moving to Maryland. It is something ro- 
mantic and pleasing, after all, that stubborn George Guelph, in striving 
to conquer the colonies, should have given them the ancestor of 
George Custer, who was to become one of their greatest glories." 

Cavell, Edith. — An English nurse shot by the Germans as a spy 
at Brussels in October, 1915, an episode of the war which supplied 
the English propagandists in the United States with one of the 
principal articles in their bill of charges of German atrocities. Col- 
onel E. R. West, chief of the legislative section of the Judge Advo- 
cate General's Department, before the American Bar Association's 
Committee on Military Justice, declared that the execution was en- 
tirely legal. S. S. Gregory, chairman of the committee, and Judge 
William P. Bynum, of Greensboro, N. C, before the Bar Asso- 
ciation, (Baltimore, August 27, 1919,) rendered a minority report 
of the same import. Col. West said: 

"We have heard much of the case of 'poor Edith Cavell.' Yet 
I have become rather firmly convinced that she was subject to her 
fate by the usual laws of war. Certainly the French have executed 
women spies." 

Col. West agreed with the Chairman that it would be only con- 
sistent with the Anglo-Saxon attitude on the Cavell case to exempt 
women from the death penalty, but he added: 

"I believe that a woman spy deserves the same fate as a man spy. 
Otherwise we would open the gates wide to the most resourceful 
class of spies that is known." 

In his report Mr. Gregory said: "A careful consideration of the 
case of Miss Edith Cavell, one of the most pathetic and appeal- 
ing victims of the great war, whose unfortunate fate has aroused 
the sympathy and excited the indignation of two continents, has 
led me to the conclusion that she was executed in accordance with 
the laws and usages of what we are commonly pleased to refer 
to as civilized warfare. This being so, it has seemed to me quite 
inconsistent with our condemnation of those who thus took her life 
to retain in our own system of military justice those provisions of 

46 



law which were relied upon by the German military authorities in 
ordering her execution. For us to take any other course, it seems 
to me, is to impeach our sincerity and good faith in criticising 
the German authorities in this regard, and to warrant the suggestion 
that such criticism is inspired rather by the fact that they, our 
enemies, were responsible for it. as well as sympathy for a good 
and worthy woman, than any well-considered judgment in the case." 
The three majority members declared that "they could not concur 
in the suggestion of Mr. Gregory that there should be a provision 
prohibiting the death penalty in the case of women spies." 

It was proved that Miss Cavell was an English professional nurse 
employed only by people well able to pay for her services. She im- 
posed upon the German officials for a long time in the character 
of a devout Christian who was taking a disinterested share in the 
relief work for the good of humanity until it was discovered that 
she was the head of a widespread organization which assisted hun- 
dreds of English and Belgians to escape from the country and enter 
the armies of Germany's enemies. Her activities are described in 
the New York "Times" of May 11, 1919, by her friend and co- 
agent, Louise Thuliez, who was condemned with Miss Cavell but 
pardoned. In court she admitted all charges and contemptuously 
shrugered her shoulders when the presiding judge asked her if she 
wished to make any statement that might influence the verdict. She 
was confined in prison about ten weeks before her execution. Her 
case gave rise to much comment in the press, endeavoring to show 
that it was a case of exceptional harshness. The Paris "Galois" 
admitted the shooting of 80 women spies by the French. The Ger- 
mans presented proof that two German women, Margaret Schmidt 
and Otillie Moss, had been shot by the French in March, 1915, on 
similar charges, and this was admitted later by the French authori- 
ties. Miss Schmidt was executed at Nancy and Miss Moss at 
Bourges. (Associated Press dispatch from Luneville dated March 25.) 
Julia Van Wauterorhem. wife of Eugene Hontang. was executed at 
Louvain, August 18, 1914, for treason. Felice Pfaat was executed 
at Marseilles, August 22, 1916, for espionage. Later the beautiful 
Mata Hari was executed by the French. 

Miss Cavell's case is very similar to that of Mrs. Mary Surratt, 
the American woman, found guilty In 1865, by a militarv commis- 
sion consisting of Generals Hunter, Elkin, Kautz, Foster, Horn, Lew 
Wallace, Harris, Col. Clendenin, Col. Tompkins, Col. Burnett, Gen. 
Holt and Judge-Advocate Bingham, of receiving, harboring, conceal- 
ing and assisting rebels; she was sentenced to be hanged by the neck 
until dead, which sentence was approved by President Johnson. 

Concord Society, The. — Born during the latter part of the war of 
a desire on the part of a few Americans of German origin deeply 

47 



impressed by the events of the times to have an organization that 
would stand for the promotion of good fellowship and friendship 
between them and their kin as individuals, and to encourage the 
study of the share of their race in the founding and development 
of the United States. The society takes no part in politics or affairs 
of state or church. Its sole aim is the fostering of good relations 
between all citizens of the German race for social and educational 
purposes. The active membership will be limited to 500. 

The name is derived from the good ship "Concord," which brought 
the settlers of Germantown to these shores in 1683. This historic 
event will be commemorated by an annual banquet of members of 
the society in one of the larger cities. All activities on the part 
of the society have been deferred until the state of war is finally 
ended. Address Frederick F. Schrader, Secretary, 63 East 59th 
Street, New York, N. Y. (See "Germaatown Settlement.") 

Christiansen, Hendrick. — Soon after Hendrick Hudson discovered 
the noble river which bears his name, a German, Hendrick Christ- 
iansen of Kleve,' became the true explorer of that stream, undertaking 
eleven expeditions to its shores. He also built the first houses on 
Manhattan Island in 1613 and laid the foundations of the trading 
stations New Amsterdam and Fort Nassau. "New Netherland was 
first explored by the honorable Hendrick Christiansen of Kleve . . . 
Hudson, the famous navigator, 'was also there.' " ("Our Hyphenated 
Citizens," by Rudolf Cronau.) 

DeKalb.— Major General Johann von Kalb, who gave his life for 
American independence in the Revolutionary War, was a native of 
Bavaria. Fatally wounded in the battle of Camden, he died August 
19, 1780. A monument to his memory was erected in front of the 
military academy at Annapolis, which states that he gave a last noble 
demonstration of his devotion for the sake of liberty and the Amer- 
ican cause, after having served most honorably for three years in the 
American army, by leading his soldiers and inspiring them by his ex- 
ample to deeds of highest bravery. Kalb was one of a number of 
efficient German-born officers who came over with the French to 
serve with the French troops under Lafayette. 

Declaration of Independence — The first paper to print the Declara- 
tion of Independence in the United States was a German newspaper, 
the "Pennsylvania Staatsboten" of July 5, 1776. It is also claimed 
that the first newspaper in Pennsylvania was printed in the German 
language. Benjamin Franklin at one time complained that of the 
eight newspapers then existing in Pennsylvania two were German, 

48 



two were half German and half English, and only two were printed 
in English. 

Dorsheimer, Hon. William — Lieutenant Governor of the State of 
New York; born at Lyons, Wayne County, 1832. His father was 
Philip Dorsheimer, a native of Germany, who emigrated from Ger- 
many and settled at Buffalo; he was one of the founders of the Repub- 
lican party and in 1860 was elected Treasurer of the State. 

Dutch and German — In the history of early American colonization 
the terms Dutch and German are often confounded, as the English 
had little first-hand acquaintance with the people of the continent save 
Dutch, French and Spanish. Hence many have inferred that the Penn- 
sylvania Germans were somehow misnamed for Pennsylvania DutcTi, 
because the latter designation is the more frequently employed in de- 
scribing the most important element of the population concerned in 
the settlement of Penn's Commonwealth. Many of the first settlers 
of New Amsterdam were Germans and almost as many Germans as 
Swedes were concerned in the earliest European settlement of Dela- 
ware. Peter Minnewitt, the first regular governor of New Amsterdam, 
was German-born, and it was he who, having entered the Swedish 
service, in 1637, with a ship of war and a smaller vessel, led a colony 
of Swedes with their chaplain, to the Delaware River region, between 
Cape Henlopen and Christian Creek. They bought land of the Indians 
and called it "New Sweden." A second company of immigrants from 
Sweden came over in 1642, under Colonel John Printz, likewise a 
native of Germany. Among these first settlers of Delaware a con- 
siderable number were Germans. The latter however, are more often 
confounded with their nearest of kin, the Hollanders. "At that time," 
says Anton Eickhoff ("In der Neuen Heimath") "the distinction be- 
tween Hollanders and Germans was not as pronounced as nowadays. 
The loose political union which had never been very close, between 
Holland and the German Empire, was formally severed by the Peace 
of Westphalia. But though politically it was no longer a German 
State, Holland continued to be regarded as such in public mind. The 
i| common language of the Hollanders and the Low Germans was 
Plattdeutsch." Dr. William Elliot Griffis ("The Romance of American 
Colonization") refers to the confounding of Germans with Dutch. 
"The Isthmus of this peninsula was called 'Dutch Gap,' after the glass 
makers who set up their furnace here in 1608," he writes. "Most 
Englishmen then made and uneducated people now make, no dis- 
tinction between the Dutch and the Germans, who are politically dif- 
ferent people." 

Dual Citizenship. — It was frequently alleged before and during our 
entrance into the war that a native German might under the laws 

49 



of Germany become a citizen of another country without thereby 
being released from his obligations to his native country, and the 
attempt was made to make it appear that naturalized Germans could 
still be regarded as citizens of Germany, or as possessing dual citizen- 
ship. ' r--]-^ 
It is true that the German law (Reichs-und-Staatsangehorigkeits- 
Gesetz) of July, 1913, says: "Citizenship is not lost by one who, 
before acquiring foreign citizenship, has secured on application the 
written consent of the competent authorities of his home State to 
retain his citizenship. Before this consent is given the German Con- 
sul is to be heard." But this section is under no circumstances 
annlicable to the United States, because in Section 36 the law says: 
"This law does not apply as far as treaties with foreign countries 
say otherwise." Now the treaty of the United States with the North- 
ern German Confederacy which was concluded 1868 (the Bancroft 
treaty) provides that Germans naturalized in the United States shall 
be treated by Germany as American citizens. This provision applies 
now to the natives of all the German States, and was so interpreted 
by the State Department. 

Earling, Albert J. — President of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. 
Paul Railway Company and one of the recognized authorities on 
modern railway economics. Son of German' immigrants. 

Eckert. Thomas. — General superintendent during the Civil War of 
militarv telegraphy, and assistant secretary of war (1864). Given the 
rank of Brigadier Generalr Appointed general superintendent of the 
Western Union Telegraph Company in 1866, and in 1881 became its 
nresident and general manager, and also director of the American 
Telegraph and Cable Company also of the Union Pacific Railroad. 

Eh'ot, Prof Charles W. — One of the most eminent as well as bitter 
e'-'pmips of the German cause. Prof. Eliot has attacked German 
n'vi'li'T-atio" and German institutions in maarazines and newspaper 
articles and in a book. Yet in 1913, one year before the war, at a public 
dinner. Prof. Eliot naid German "Kultur" this high tribute: "Two great 
doctrines which had sprung from the German Protestant Reformation 
had been developed by Germans from seeds then planted in Germany. 
The first was the doctrine of universal education, developed from the 
Protestant conception of individual responsibility, and the second was 
the great doctrine of civil liberty, liberty in industries, in society, in 
government, liberty with order under law. These two principles took 
their rise in Protestant Germany; and America has been the greatest 
beneficiary of that noble teaching." Yet with all these political and 
civic virtues, Prof. Eliot reversed himself like a weather-cock within 
a few months and became the hysterical spokesman pf the most 
violent section of the Anglo-American coterie. 

50 



England Plundered American Commerce in Our Civil War. — From 

Benson J. Lossing's "History of the Civil War": "The Confederates 
, . . with the aid of the British aristocracy, shipbuilders and mer- 
chants, and the tacit consent of the British government, were enabled 
to keep afloat on the ocean some active vessels for plundering Amer- 
ican commerce. The most formidable of the Anglo-Confederate 
plunderers of the sea was the "Alabama," which was built, armed, 
manned and victualled in England. She sailed under the British flag 
and was received with favor in every British port that she entered. 
In the last three months of the year 1862 she destroyed by fire twenty- 
eight helpless American merchant vessels. While these incendiary 
fires, kindled by Englishmen, commanded by a Confederate leader, 
were illuminating the bosom of the Atlantic Ocean, a merchant ship 
(the "George Griswold") laden with provisions as a gift for the starving 
English operatives in Lancashire, who had been deprived of work and 
food by the Civil War in America, and whose necessities their own 
government failed to relieve, was sent from the City of New York, 
convoyed by a national war vessel, to save her from the fury of the 
British sea-rover!" 

Recent statistics show that while 90% of our imports and 89% of 
our exports were carried in American bottoms before the Civil War, 
they had declined to 10 and 7^% of our imports and exports in 1910. 

English Tribute to Germany's Lofty Spirit. — The following tribute 
to the lofty spirit of the German Empire is from the pen of Prof. 
J. A. Cramb, "Germany and England," (Lecture II, p. 51, 1913) : 

And here let me say with regard to Germany, that, of all 
England's enemies, she is by far the greatest; and by "greatness" 
I mean not merely magnitude, not her millions of soldiers, her 
millions of inhabitants; I mean grandeur of soul. She is the 
greatest and most heroic enemy — if she is our enemy — that 
England, in the thousand years of her history, has ever con- 
fronted. In the sixteenth century we made war upon Spain. 
But Germany in the twentieth century is a greater Power, 
greater in conception, in thought, in all that makes for human 
dignity, than was the Spain of Charles V and Philip II. In the 
seventeenth century we fought against Holland, but the Ger- 
many of Bismarck and the Kaiser is greater than the Holland of 
DeWitt. In the eighteenth century we fought against France, 
and again the Germany of to-day is a higher, more august Power 
than France under Louis XIV. 

Election of 1916 and the League of Nations Covenant. — Save for 
artificially engendered belligerency, owing its inspiration to a subtle 
propaganda conducted through a portion of the press known to be 
under the direct influence of Lord Northcliflfe, there was no deman4 
for war with Germany among the people in general over the various 
issues that had arisen. The McLemore resolution in the House was 
defeated through the direct intervention pf the administration under 

51 



whip and spur. It requested the President to warn American citizens 
to refrain from traveling on armed ships of any and all powers then or 
in the future at war. 

In the Senate the Gore resolution declaring "that the sinking by a 
German submarine without notice or warning of an armed merchant 
vessel of her public enemy, resulting in the death of a citizen of the 
United States, would constitute a just cause of war between the 
United States and the German Empire" was laid on the table by a 
vote of 68 to 14. It had been designed by Senator Gore to put the 
issue squarely up to the Senate. Senator Stone in the Senate said, 
referring to the original Gore resolution warning American citizens 
to keep of? armed merchant vessels: "The President is firmly op- 
posed to the idea embodied in the Gore resolution. He is not only 
opposed to Congress passing a law relating to this subject, but he 
is opposed to any form of official warning to American citizens to 
keep off so-called armed merchantmen. If I could have my way I 
would take some definite step to save this country from becoming 
embroiled in this European war through the recklessness of foolhardy 
men." 

A few days before, the Senator, chairman of the Committee on 
Foreign Relations, had returned from an interview with the President 
which had convinced him even then that war was impending. 

In various parts of the country test votes of whole communities 
showed an overwhelming sentiment in favor of peace. W. J. Bryan 
had resigned as Secretary of State because "the issue involved is of 
such moment that to remain a member of the Cabinet would be as 
unfair to you (the President) as it would be to the cause which is 
nearest my heart, namely, the prevention of war." 

Perhaps the best indication whether the war was popular or not is 
that supplied by the number of volunteers who offered themselves 
for service from April 1, 1917, to April 6, 1918, in eleven eastern 
States, as follows: 

Connecticut 4,263 

Delaware 807 

Maine 2,491 

Maryland 4,029 

Massachusetts 19,253 

New Hampshire 1,364 

New Jersey 10,145 

New York 44,191 

Pennsylvania 45,687 

Rhode Island 2,496 

Vermont 645 



135^^71 

The number of enlistments in the remaining States was in proportion. 

52 



The President had been elected because "he kept us out of the war." 
In his nominating speech ex-Governor Glynn of New York assured 
the country that, if elected, Mr. Wilson would keep us out of war. 
It became the campaign slogan. The Democratic National Committee 
published full-page advertisements in the daily press. On November 
4, 1916, it printed in all the papers a full-page display with a cartoon 
under the caption, "Mr. Hughes Would Name a Strong Cabinet," 
showing a council of ten Roosevelts in Rough Rider attire, with 
slouched hats and spurs, and in every possible attitude of vociferous 
belligerency, intended to show the kind of cabinet that Mr. Hughes 
would select. In heavy type these lines appeared: "You Are Work- 
ing — Not Fighting!" "Alive and Happy — Not Cannon Fodder!" 
"Wilson and Peace With Honor or Hughes With Roosevelt and 
War?" "The Lesson is Plain: If You Want War Vote for Hughes; 
If You Want Peace With Honor Vote for Wilson and Continued 
Prosperity. It Is up to You and Your Conscience!" 

It latterly became known that though Hughes had repeatedly de- 
clared himself clearly on the issues in the course of his cam- 
paign speeches his remarks on this subject were not reported. All 
reference to the European situation and his views thereon were sup- 
pressed. 

The city of Milwaukee gave Wilson 6*000 majority over Hughes. 
He carried the assured Republicaii State of Ohio on the issue that 
he would keep us out of the war and the decisive vote was given by 
California under the belief that with Wilsorl pea.ce would.be assured. 

The defeat of Hughes secondarily must be attributed to Colonel 
Roosevelt. The latter's personality fell like an ominous shadow 
across the path of the Republican candidate. Roosevelt was satis- 
fied with nothing short of immediate war, and, nominally fighting 
Wilson, was in effect making the election of Hughes impossible. 
Repeatedly proven to have lost his power of influencing political 
results in his own State of New York, in New England and other sec- 
tions, he still was able to decree the' defeat of the candidate of his 
own party by inspiring popular fear of, his future sway over him. 

In Washington it was known that preparations for war with Ger- 
many were long under w^ay. Secretary McAdoo, the President's son- 
in-law, was understood to have entered into a secret arrangement 
with Brazil, during his visit there, for the seizure of German shi:?3 
when the hour to strike should have arrived. The administration in 
1916, months before the election, passed through Congress appropri- 
ations for military purposes larger than those provided in the German 
budget for 1914, the year of the war: 

United States, for 1917 . . . . . r. . . . : $294,565,623 

German Empire, for 1914. ......... ; .'. ..... 294,390,000 

In excess of Germany $ 175,623 

53 



The national election occurred in November, 1916. Three months 
later, early in February, 1917, Count Bernstorff, the German ambassa- 
dor, was handed his passports and relations with Germany were 
broken off. The announcement came like a bolt out of a clear sky. 
The President was not to be inaugurated until March 4 following. 
Within a month of his formal inauguration he announced that we 
were in a state of war with the imperial German government. 

The events that followed were marked by a complete surrender 
of Congress and the domination of the Executive over the Legislative 
branch of our government. The President was invested with dic- 
tatorial powers; political traditions and the time-honored admonitions 
of the founders of the government were disregarded and overruled. 
A Cabinet order had already decreed that American citizens forswear- 
ing their allegiance in order to serve in the British army were not 
to lose their standing as American citizens. Now armies of conscripts 
were made ready to be sent a distance of 3,000 miles to fight for the 
safeguarding of democracy in Europe and to protect us from an 
invasion, possible only by ships which were subsequently pronounced 
by the Secretary of the Navy to be restricted by their bunker ca- 
pacity to operations in European waters. 

A sudden mad fury seized the people, following a visit of Lord 
Northcliffe, marked by numerous conferences with publishers during 
a trip West. The press became unanimous, with the exception of the 
Hearst papers, on the question that Germany must be crushed. Dur- 
ing the floating of the $500,000,000 loan to England and France pend- 
ing our neutrality, full page advertisements had been generously dis- 
tributed to papers throughout the country by the Morgan banking 
interests. In mining regions, in steel-producing sections, in great in- 
dustrial centers, in cities having large packing interests or sugar re- 
fineries, local interests prevailed to influence sentiment for war as a 
means of profit and prosperity. Public opinion was soon rendered 
so completely unfit for sober reflection by the continued propaganda 
directed from Wall Street and British and French publicity centers in 
this country that a wave of hate against people of German descent 
swept everything before it. The Germans were not wanted, and 
papers like the New York "Sun" declared that Germans were not 
human beings in the same sense as other members of, the family. 

Yet, shortly prior to the election, a member of the Cabinet and 
others in the confidence of the administration had come to New York 
to confer with those whom they regarded authorized to speak for 
the German element to prevail upon them to influence the so-called 
German vote in favor of the Democratic candidate, and in one case, 
at least, a post of honor was tentatively promised to one such spokes- 
man by an agent direct from the highest source. 

The crowning event of the raging spirit of repression was the 
passage of the Overman bill creating the Espionage act, considered 

54 



elsewhere, under which every liberal paper was tampered with in 
one form or another, and public assembly, the right of petition, free- 
dom of speech and the press became a memory. 

A vigorous reaction against the President set in during the fall of 
1918. Down to that period he had practically had a free hand in 
dealing with the conduct of the war and with the European situation. 
There had been a protest by Senators against the disregard shown 
that body by the President in the initial negotiations at Paris, but 
so com.pietely had the Executive dominated the high legislative body, 
his treaty-making partner, that the protest took the discreet form 
of a round-robin, which in turn was not only disregarded, but 
characterized as a presumption to hamper the action of the President. 
The November election of 1918 was coming on. The President in 
Paris issued an appeal to the voters to elect a Democratic Congress 
to strengthen his hands. Diplomatically, steps were inaugurated to 
insure the end of the war by the voluntary abdication of the Kaiser 
in time to influence the elections with the news of a crushing victory 
over Germany. The name of Minister Nelson Morris at Stockholm, 
Sweden, as also the name of Senator James Hamilton Lewis of 
Illinois, was brought into connection with rumors of negotiations 
looking to the surrender of Germany on the basis of the Fourteen 
Points in time to enable the news to be flashed to America on the 
eve of the election as the crowning achievement of the President. 
But the psychological moment passed. The elections occurred on 
November 7, the German debacle four days later. 

Although it was well understood that a victory was at hand, the 
Republicans swept the country. The great Democratic majorities 
were reversed, not only in the House, but in the Senate. The Repub- 
lican leaders interpreted the result as an endorsement of their party, 
but it was really a popular vote of protest that could find no channel 
of expression other than the Republican party because of its opposi- 
tion to the administration on party policies, though in accord with it 
on many of the radically oppressive measures of domestic policy in 
the prosecution of the war. 

With the Republicans in control of both branches of Congress, the 
President's dominating influence began to wane rapidly. When it 
began to be apparent that his visit to Europe, where he had been 
hailed by millions as the Moses of the New Freedom, was marked 
by one concession on his part after another to the superior statescraft 
of Premiers Lloyd George and Clemenceau and that his famous Four- 
teen Points had been reduced one by one to zero, the magic slogan, 
"Stand by the President," was forgotten. Some one said that on 
his way to Utopia he had met two practical politicians. 

A year preceding men were arrested for failing to stand by the 
President, as treason to the institutions of the country; now the tide 
had turned, the rallying cry had lost its force. The country was 

55 



witnessing the spectacle of its President stepping down from his 
pedestal to play the game of European politics in the secrecy of a 
closet, not with his equals, but with mere envoys of sovereign powers, 
guided by radically different interests from our own. 

Thence on the President was at open war with the Senate, which 
had been kept in ignorance of the peace negotiations and discovered 
that a draft of the League of Nations covenant, including the treaty 
with Germany, had been in the hands of the Morgan banking group 
while the high treaty-making body of our government had been 
ignored in its demand for information. 

A few courageous Senators, notably Reed of Missouri, Democrat, 
and Borah of Idaho and Johnson of California, Republicans, began 
to analyze the treaty, and showed that while Great Britain was 
accorded six votes the United States would have but one vote in 
the League, and that China had been ravaged by the ceding to Japan 
of the Shantung Peninsula as the price of her adherence to the League 
of Nations. Senator Knox directed attention to the ravagement of 
the German people by the terms of the treaty, and, though a con- 
servative, evidenced the vision of a statesman and patriotic American. 

The outlook for the treaty began to darken from day to day. The 
administration was still confident, and statements from the White 
House declared the treaty to redeem all of the Fourteen Points of 
the President's peace program. But the constant assaults upon 
it by Senators Reed, Borah and Johnson in speeches in various parts 
of the country eventually aroused the administration to its danger. 

A conference with the President was brought about at the White 
House in the summer of 1919, at which the Chief Executive expressed 
himself ready to answer all questions, and a committee from the 
Senate waited upon him to submit a series of inquiries. It was in 
the course of this interview that the following colloquy occurred: 

Senator McCumber: "Would our moral conviction of the un- 
righteousness of the German war have brought us into this war if 
Germany had not committed any acts against us without the League 
of Nations, as we had no League of Nations at that time?" 

The President: "I hope it would eventually, Senator, as things 
developed." 

Senator McCumber: "Do you think if Germany had committed no 
act of war ar no act of injustice against our citizens that we would 
have got into the war?" 

The President: "I do think so." 

Senator McCutmber: "You think we would have gotten in anyway?" 

The President: "I do." 

The Republican leader in the House of Representatives, Represen- 
tative Mann, in 1916 had declared "Wilson is determined to plunge 
us into war with Germany." Three years later the admission that 

56 



we would have been in the war even "if Germany had committed no 
act of war or no act of injustice against our citizens" came from the 
White House, and Senators stood appalled at the revelation. 

The President's frank admission that the administration would have 
drifted into war regardless of what Germany had done or might 
do, .is strangely in accord with statements contained in the great 
historic work on the World War by the former French Minister of 
Foreign Affairs, Hanotaux, who writes: 

Just before the Battle of the Marne, when the spirits of many 
of the leading politicians in France were so depressed that they 
were urging an immediate peace with Germany, three American 
ambassadors presented themselves to the government — the then 
functioning ambassador, his predecessor and his successor — and 
implored the government not to give up, promising that Amer- 
ica would join in the war. 

"At present there are but 50,000 influential persons in America 
who want it to enter the war, but in a short time there will be 
a hundred million." 

The description makes it easy to identify the three diplomats who 
gave France this assurance; they were Robert Bacon, Roosevelt's 
ambassador; Myron T. Herrick, Taft's ambassador, and William G. 
Sharp, Wilson's ambassador to Paris. This promise was given in 
September, 1914. There had then been no alleged outrages against 
American rights. The U-boat war had not been started. The 
Lusitania was not sunk until May, 1915. Obviously, then, the sinking 
of the Lusitania, the U-boat raids, and other alleged offenses, were 
mere pretexts of these "50,000 influential persons" in a propaganda 
to precipitate their hundred million fellow-citizens into the bloody 
European complication. 

No compromise now seemed possible. The Senate was determined 
to take charge of the treaty, and the President prepared to appeal to 
the country by a series of speeches which carried him through the 
West as far as the Pacific Coast. During the trip he denounced 
the opposition Senators with strong invective, culminating in violent 
outbreaks of temper. But apparently his spell over the public mind, 
the seduction of his phrases, had been broken. Suddenly came the 
news of his physical breakdown, followed by his immediate return to 
Washington under the care of physicians, and a long period of con- 
finement with the attendance of various specialists. Still he continued 
to direct the fight in the Senate for the ratification of the League of 
Nations and the treaty with Germany without the crossing of a "t" 
or the dotting of an "i." 

On November 19, 1919, the question came to a vote on a resolution 
of Senator Underwood, resulting in the defeat of the administration 
measure by a vote of 38 for and 53 against it. The only Republican 
voting with the administration was McCumber of North Dakota, 
seven Democrats voting against ratification with the Republicans. 

57 



They were Gore of Oklahoma, Reed of Missouri, Shields of Tennessee, 
Smith of Georgia, Thomas of Colorado, Trammell of Florida and 
Walsh of Massachusetts. 

English Opinion of Prussians in 1813-15.— The British, as is well 
known, revise their opinions of other nations according to their own 
selfish interests. The ambition of England to crush Prussia is in 
strong contrast to England's gratitude to Prussian military genius 
for saving Wellington from annihilation by Napoleon at Waterloo. 
The sinister years of 1806-13 speak an eloquent language. The Corsican 
conqueror thought he had crushed Prussia for all times. He had 
stripped Prussia of half her territory and trampled the rest under the 
hoofs of his cavalry. But Prussia was not dead, and from 1813 to 1815 
Prussia was the wonder of the world. The London "Times" said: 
"Almost every victory that led to the fall of the conqueror was a 
Prussian victory. At Lutzen and Goerzen always the Prussians. At 
the Katzbach, always the Prussians; at Grossbeeren and Leipzig, 
always the Prussians; in the battles in France, always the Prussians, 
and finally at Waterloo, always the Prussians. The Prussian soldier 
has proved himself the best soldier of these campaigns." 

Espionage Act, Vote on. — By a vote of 48 to 26, the Senate, on 
May 4, 1918, adopted the conference report on the Espionage Act. 
It accepted all recommendations of the conference, even to the extent 
of rejecting the France amendment, designed to protect from prosecu- 
tion newspapers and other publications whose criticism of the Gov- 
ernment was shown to be not based on malice. 

The actual count showed the resul as follows: 

AYE: Democrats — Ashurst, Bankhead, Beckham, Chamberlain, 
Culberson, Fletcher, Gerry, Guion, Henderson, Hitchcock, Hollis, 
Jones, of New Mexico; King, Kirby, Lewis, McKellar, Myers, Over- 
man, Owens, Phelan, Pittman, Pomerene, Ransdell, Salisbury, 
Shafroth, Sheppard, Shields, Simmons, Smith, of Georgia; Smith, of 
Maryland; Smith, of South Carolina; Swanson, Thompson, Tillman, 
Trammell, Underwood, Walsh and Williams. 

Republican — Colt, Fall, Jones, of Washington; Lenroot, McCumber, 
McLean, Nelson, Poindexter, Sterling and Warren. Total, 48. 

NO: Democrats — Hardwick and Reed, 2. 

Republicans — Borah, Brandegee, Calder, Curtis, Dillingham, France, 
Gallinger, Gronna, Hale, Harding, Johnson, of California; Kenyon, 
Knox, Lodge, McNary, New, Norris, Page, Sherman, Smoot, Suther- 
land, Wadsworth, Watson and Weeks — 24. Total, 26. 

Exports and Imports to and from the Belligerent Countries, 1914.— 

The following figures are taken from the "Statistical Abstract of the 
United States, 1915." 

58 





Exports to — 


Imports from- 


1913 
1915 


$ 23,320,696 
1,238,669 


$ 19,192,414 
9,794,418 


1914 
1915 


159,818,924 ■ 
369,397,170-;- ^ 


141,446,252 
-: 77,1:58,740 


1914 

1915 


344,794,276 

28,863,354 ^ 


^ 189,9r9il36 
91,372,710 


1914 
1915 


74,235,012 
184,819,688 


56,407,671 
54,973,726 


1914 
1915 


31,303.149 
60,827,531 


23,320,157 
3,394,040 


1914 
1915 


594,271,863 
911,794,954 


,293,661,304 
256,351,675 


1913 
1914 
1915 


415,449,457 

. 344,716,081 

. 300,686,812 


120,571,180 
160,689,790 
159,571,712 



Austria-Hungary 

France 

Germany 

Italy 

Russia 

United Kingdom 

Canada 



The table shows that the normal trade with Germany was the lar- 
gest next to that with the United Kingdom, and that Germany took 
more of our products than Canada. It shows that Germany was not 
only one of our best customers but that the balance of trade was 
largely in our favor, the excess' of American exports to Germany 
over imports in 1914 amounting to $154,875,140, or nearly as much 
as our entire exports to France in 1914. ' • ■■'•-'^ 

The following table shows how the British arbitrary rule of the 
seas cut down our trade with the Scandinavian countries, all but that 
of Norway, whose neutrality was largely in favor of England. The 
figures are for the nine months ending March. 

1915 1916 



Denmark, exports and imports $ 63,103,962 

Netherlands, exports and imports 101,892,382 

Norway, exports and imports 32,401,556 

Sweden, exports and imports 65,880,749 



$44,046,752 
72,469,008 
37,259,135 
43,156,027 



Under the Espionage Act — A Chapter of Persecution. — The sudden 
decision of our government to enter the European war, on April 6, 
1917, found the German element wholly unprepared for the outburst 
of bitter hate which in the course of a few weeks threatened to over- 
whelm every standard of sense and justice. Though a minority ele- 
ment, it approximated closely the dominant Anglo-American element; 
it far outnumbered every other racial element, andr it was not con- 
scious of anything that justified its being relegated to a class apart 
from the American people as a whole. - 

The German element had fought for the independence of America 
in the Revolution to the full limit of its quota, which was considerable; 
it had outstripped every other element in furnishing troops for the 
Union army; it had stood loyally by the government in every other 
crisis of its history, and it was not aware that the Germans living 



59 



3,000 miles away under a government of their own had ever followed 
any policy save one of pronounced friendship for the United States. 

Having no political adhesion among themselves, having never 
contemplated the possibility of being turned upon by their fellow 
citizens, fostering the spirit of conviviality, sociability, and cultivating 
song and art rather than politics, they had relied confidently on the 
impartiality of laws of the land to protect them in their rights as well 
as to exact the performance of their duties as American citizens. 

Their forefathers had been foremost in the winning of the West; 
more than any others they formed the far-flung battle line that 
encountered the invasion of the red hordes in the French-Indian 
wars; more of their number had perished in Indian massacres, from 
Canajoharie to New Ulm, than of any other race; they could defiantly 
challenge any other element to show a greater influence in educational, 
cultural and general academic directions, and in the words of that 
truly great American woman, Miss Jane Addams, the German Amer- 
ican element was entitled to be heard. 

It is unfortunately an Anglo-American trait to be easily lashed into 
a fanatical mob spirit by prominent spokesmen, in singular disregard 
of its avowed democracy. The history of our country teems with 
examples of unbridled violence against any non-conforming spirit that 
ever developed. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote: 

The influential classes, and those who take upon themselves to 
be the leaders of the people, are fully liable to all the passionate 
error that has ever characterized the maddest mob. Clergy- 
men, judges, statesmen, the wisest, calmest, holiest persons of 
their day, stood in the inner circle round about the gallows, 
loudest to applaud the work of blood, latest to confess them- 
selves miserably deceived. 
It began with the hanging of witches; it was continued in the 
mobbing of Quakers; at one time we mobbed English actors, and in 
the Astor Place riots of New York, because we abhorred an English 
actor, Macready, eighteen persons were killed. There were the anti- 
Masonic riots, the anti-Catholic emeutes, the Know Nothing riots; 
later the anti-abolitionist riots in Boston and elsewhere; the Copper- 
head mobs, the Sandlot riots, and dozens of others, down to the 
burning of negroes by demonstrative communities charging them- 
selves with the administration of savage justice. 

It happened to be the turn of the Germans, forming 26 per cent, of 
the total population, and so intermixed that nothing can ever segregate 
the cross-currents of blood that courses through the veins of the 
American people. 

In the Revolution Prussia had given refuge to American cruisers 
at Danzig, the port which, under the treaty we are helping to distrain 
from her German motherland, and had bribed Catherine the Great's 
minister to prevent the sending of Russian troops to help England 
fight the American colonists; in the Civil War, besides giving their 

60 



sons to the cause of the Union, the Germans had come to our rescue 
with their money when most needed. Was it astonishing that the 
so-called German element was stunned and staggered by the sudden 
reversion of sentiment from one of complete spiritual and national 
accord to one of vindictive malice by neighbor against neighbor and 
friend against friend? 

It is perhaps true, as has been assumed, that certain influential 
members of the administration received an inordinate shock at the 
suggestion, from whatever source it came, that the German Americans 
would be likely to rise in revolution, and that a panic seized Wash- 
ington at such a prospect, so that all measures were considered fair 
that would tend to put down the Germans and keep them in com- 
plete subjection by a system of terrorism. It is certain that no evi- 
dence has been disclosed by the endless investigations that have been 
going on which tended to establish the guilt of any member of the 
race as to plots against the government. 

The Attorney General called for 200,000 volunteers to act as agents 
of the Department of Justice to report all disloyal talk or on the 
identity of persons suspected of being "pro-German." To be known 
as having sympathized with the Central Powers, no matter what one's 
action was after we entered the war, was to insure one's footsteps 
and movements to be dogged by spies. No home was sacred, and the 
least indiscreet utterance was ground for a report, arrest and indict- 
ment under the so-called Espionage Act, which the New York "Amer- 
ican" of February 24, 1917, described as "simply the infamous Alien 
and Sedition laws under another name," passed in 1789, during the 
presidency of John Adams, which consigned the party that passed it 
to eternal oblivion. 

Senator Cummings of Iowa said: 

This measure is the most stringent and drastic law ever pro- 
posed to curb a free people in time of peace or war. The Gov- 
ernment would have absolute power in war time to suppress 
newspapers and prevent debate in Congress. It might even be 
held a criminal offense for two citizens to discuss with each other 
questions of military policy. 
The New York "Call" of July 2, 1919, described the eflfect of the 
law in no exaggerated language when it said: 

Free discussion became a memory, and rubber stamp opinions 
became a badge of "patriotism." Men and women were hunted 
out of their homes for having an idea higher than a rat. In some 
states a White Terror raged which deported whole families to 
adjoining states. Blood flowed. Men were mobbed and some 
lynched because they insisted on using their brains, instead of the 
brains of others. Public officials applauded, refused to interfere, 
and newspapers glorified the carousal of hate and terror. 

Spying upon your friends became an honorable calling. The 
coward who hated his fellow man in packs became the popular 
"hero." Papers and magazines had their mailing privileges 

61 



withdrawn and some were suppressed. Libraries were repeatedly 
ransacked for "seditious" literature. The schools became a 
refuge of servile teachers, who taught what was told them, no 
matter how absurd it might be. Censorship barred the masses 
from the real news of the world. The "news" was manufactured 
in government bureaus and in the editorial offices of the daily 
newspapers. The theater and the "movie" became agencies for 
enforcing standardized opinions. The churches tied their creeds 
to the chariot of the imperialists and made their Christ speak 
for reaction. The lecture platform became defiled. The re- 
version back to the primitive permeated politics. The blackest 
enemies of human progress had the public ear; its friends were 
damned and assaulted. Histori-^ I works were "revised" or 
suppressed to piake them square ..ith the brutal mania of the 
hour. 

All this was glorified in the name of "democracy," in the name 
of "liberty," in the name of "freedom." A shadow fell upon the 
intellectual life of the nation. For the time being it 
was blotted out. All thinking had ceased, except for 
a courageous few, and they were mobbed or sent to the 
penitentiaries. Yet the editors, politicians, preachers, capitalists, 
bankers, exploiters, profiteers, patrioteers, "labor leaders," all. 
looked upon their work and called it good. Missions went 
abroad to tell the European yokels of our "ideals." The masses 
were intellectual prisoners, marching in the lockstep of capital's 
chain gang. 

There was a phase of this spy activity that went even beyond this: 
The invasion of the. homes of German Americans whose sons were 
fighting in the ranks and dying in France — there were 17,000 of the 
latter. They were harried by ill-bred patriots of the sort we read of in 
the history of the French revolution, who, disregarding the fact that 
these parents were citizens, treated them as suspects and kept them 
under surveillance because they were not rushing out into the open 
and shouting "Huns." 

Many a case occurred in which a lad in the American army was 
fighting against, his own brother in the ranks of the German army 
and his mother over here was harrassed by members of the National 
Security League, the' American Defense Society or the American 
Protective League, while the father was cast out of employment for 
being of German blood. 

Many a crippled boy returned from France to find that his family 
had been impoverished and persecuted by secret agents or self-con- 
stituted spifjs. In the breast of many a young German American 
were then and there planted the seeds of hate for his tormentors, and, 
sad to relate, doubts of the virtue of American liberty. He had given 
his blood to make the world safe for democracy and found his home 
in the grip of despotism. 

'There are t^bse.who account for the persecution of the German 
element by the reminder that tlie war offered the first opportunity 
for Southern-thinking Americans to repay the German element for 

62 



its share in the Civil War in aiding the Union to win the final victory 
in 1865. Be that as it may, in the end this element was gloriously 
vindicated by ample proof of its loyalty, no matter what the test. 
Despite the most unrelenting enforcement of every phase of the 
objectionable act, mass meetings were held in twelve cities during 
Lincoln's birthday in 1919, to protest against the law and demand its 
repeal. The meetings were called in the name of Lincoln, the 
liberator, but not by German Americans. 

Reviewing the prosecutions under the Espionage Act, the Civil 
Liberties Bureau, 41 Union Square, which itself was repeatedly raided, 
on February 13, 1919, issued the following summary: 

The bureau has had, since the beginning of the war, a stand- 
ing order with a newspaper clipping company covering all re- 
ferences in the press of the United States to disloyalty, sedition, 
espionage and the Espionage law. As a result, we have the most 
illuminating record of cases which it has been possible to com- 
plete without access to the records of the Attorney General. 
We have no record of a single instance when a spy has been im- 
prisoned under this law. 

Furthermore, in the cases cited in the Attorney General's re- 
port as typical of those prosecuted under the Espionage law, 
there is not one case in which the prisoner was convicted of 
being a paid German spy, or of even trying to find out military 
secrets. All the convictions which are reported arose under 
section 13 of the Penal Code, under which the maximum sen- 
tence is two years. So far as we have any record, cases of this 
nature which have arisen under the Espionage act have been 
terminated by the internment of the accused, without imprison- 
ment. On the other hand, American citizens exercising (per- 
haps without discretion) the right of free speech in war time 
have been sentenced to as hi^h as twenty years in the peni- 
tentiary. According to the data in our possession, about two- 
thirds of the convictions have been for remarks in private con- 
versation. The remainder have been for statements made in 
public speeches and in literature publicly circulated. 
The daily press, with the very rarest exceptions, was in accord with 
the mob and the spirit of the Espionage Act. If ever it was evident 
how little the German Americans had been taken into consideration 
by their fellow citizens, it became undeniably patent in the refusal of 
the press, though largely dependent on the support of this element, 
to cry a halt to the persecutions. Every man arrested on some 
charge was glaringly pictured in the character of a dangerous spy, and 
fanatical women were given much space in their columns for organized 
assaults on German toys and German music. The German people were 
described as moral lepers. The New York "Herald" advocated the 
hanging of German Americans to lamp posts. The New York "Sun," 
late in October, 1918, soberly printed this: 

Yet by not a few are we ominously told that the German is 
a man of like nature with ourselves and that as such we, must 
be prepared to live v^ith him after the war. This is not the 

63 



truth; it is rather the most menacing lie upon the horizon of 
the conflict and its conclusion.. . . Scrutinized historically 
and presented boldly, the German cannot be but recognized as 
a distinctly separate and pathological human species. He is not 
human in the sense that other men are human. 

Societies were formed for the Suppression of Everything German, 
and there exists at present in all parts of the United States a secret 
society pledged not to buy of any German American or to give em- 
ployment to any member of that race. 

The German Americans manifested an utterly helpless spirit in the 
situation. No uniform demand w^as formulated to be presented to 
Congress demanding the repeal of the Espionage Act after the excuse 
that called it into existence had ceased to exist, or calling on the 
authorities for protection. Some formed a society known as "The 
Friends of German Democracy," under Mr. Franz Sigel, which adopted 
resolutions pledging complete and unreserved loyalty. It was re- 
warded with a letter from a woman heading an anti-German move- 
ment who subsequently was shown to be an English subject, in which 
the Friends of German Democracy were roundly told that "the only 
good German-American is a dead one." 

Another woman, the daughter of German parents, Mrs. William Jay, 
gained great notoriety by her campaign against German music, and 
was instrumental in stopping German plays, operas and symphonies 
in New York before and after the armistice had been signed, and also 
in sending many well-established German musicians into exile, or to 
an internment camp. Many, courting favor and recognition from per- 
sons having some social standing, seeing their own race utterly help- 
less in counteracting the feeling of contempt, joined with their de- 
tractors in order to remove all doubt as to their own loyalty. 

In many States the teaching of the German language was prohibited 
by the legislatures. In New York City, though the Germans have 
a total vote of 1,250,000, including the women, they were unable to 
prevent — and made no attempt to prevent — an order forbidding the 
teaching of German or the introduction of new books of history in 
the schools in which their race is described as Huns and made re- 
sponsible for every atrocity ascribed to it in the heat of war. 

The only outstanding resistance to the spirit of Anglicising the 
country was recorded in New Jersey, where the German language was 
put under the ban in the Masonic lodges, and where John J. Plem- 
enik. Master of Schiller Lodge, in Newark, refused to comply with 
the order of the Grand Lodge on the ground that for fifty years the 
lodge had worked in German, under the sanction of the Grand Lodge. 
Rather than submit to the edict of the Grand Lodge of the State the 
master walked out of the lodge room, followed by 200 Masons, some 
of them from English-speaking lodges. The example found a near 
parallel in one of the twenty-seven German lodges in New York City, 
one of them above 125 years old, after which an order extending the 

64 



time for discontinuing the German language of the lodges was 
promptly issued. All the lodges were, however, unanimous in sup- 
port of steps against obedience to the edict. 

The New York Liederkranz Society, one of the largest German 
social organizations in the United States, cheered the late Col. Roose- 
velt to the echo in his attacks on their race. The New York "Times" 
of October 16, 1918, says that although all members of the club are of 
German descent, every statement made by Col. Roosevelt, and the 
other speakers, William Forster, president of the club, and Ludwig 
Nissen, chairman of the Libert}^ Loan Committee, were cheered again 
and again. Col. Roosevelt said there was room here for but one 
language, meaning, of course, the King's English. 

A few months later we read a dispatch from Philadelphia (New York 
"Tribune," April 26, 1919): "President Wilson's attitude on the Fiume 
situation has so aroused Italians in this city that they will not hold 
their Victory Liberty Loan parade. . . . Leaders here fear that the 
attitude of the Italians toward President Wilson will result in cutting 
down their subscriptions to the loan." 

Before one Justice Cropsey, of the Queens County Supreme Court, 
ten Germans out of eleven who applied for citizenship one day in 
May, 1919, six months after the signing of the armistice, had their 
petitions denied. A girl who was earning her living as a stenographer 
was included in the list because she had not invested in the first two 
Liberty loans, though she was unemployed at the time. The learned 
Justice dismissed her petition with the statement: "You get the benefit 
of this country and increase your pay through its entrance into the 
war, and yet you will not support it." 

Out of 215 staff officers named among the personnel of the new 
general staff of the army, announced October 3, 1918, only nine bore 
German names. Of the service men aboard an American ship de- 
stroyed in action during the war, 36 per cent, bore German names. 
The highest distinction conferred on any American aviator during the 
active fighting was given to Capt. Edward V. Rickenbacker, popu- 
larly called "the American Ace of Aces," of Columbus, Ohio. 

Any one resisting the current of hatred and abuse, as Henry Ford, 
whose contribution to the success of the American army is certainly 
incontestible, was exposed to the same attacks as those directly of 
German descent who were everywhere summoned before boards of 
inquisition; a headline in the "Evening Sun" of July 2, 1919, runs like 
this: "Ford Kept 500 Pro-Germans— Staff Men Say They Worked at 
Plant During the War — Motor Defects Were Passed — Didn't Try to 
Correct Errors." 

That citizens of German origin were assigned a status independent 
of other citizens is apparent from a statement filed with the United 
States Senate by Mr. George A. Schreiner, the war correspondent of 
the Associated Press, who, upon his return here for a visit, was re- 

65 



fused a passport for two years to go back to his post of duty. He 
writes: 

I will terminate my report with a few remarks that seem 
greatly in order. These remarks concern the status of the 
naturalized citizen. On the very report issued to me on August 
30, 1919, there appears personal data denouncing me which was 
formerly not placed on passports, and which during the last two 
years has done much injury to naturalized citizens. I refer to 
the fact that in the lower left-hand corner of the passport is 
noted the citizen's place of birth and former nationality. As 
things are constituted and as they have been for some time, the 
notice referred to constitutes a discrimination against citizens 
of the United States of immigrant origin. The passport is 
given to the citizen as a means to identify himself as a citizen 
of the United States, not as signal to those hostile to his racials 
elsewhere, that the Government of the United States sees a dis- 
tinction between native and those of foreign birth The 

elimination of all personal data from the passport would be the 
first step on the part of the Government in serving notice upon 
foreign governments that there is but one class of citizens in 
the United States, and that all of them are equally entitled to 
protection, as was the stand taken by the Senate when some 
years ago it abrogated the commercial treaty with the Imperial 
Russian Government, because that government had refused to 
recognize fully the American passports given to citizens of the 
United States of Jewish origin. 

Men in the Department of State have thought it presumptuous 
on my part that I should claim the rights of a native-born 
citizen, and do that in the manner in which I was forced to do it. 
To that I will reply that no other avenue was open. In the first 
place, I am either a citizen of the United States in every sense 
of the word, and in every duty and right, or I am not. So long 
as there is not set up, let me say, immigrant citizens, or what- 
ever designation may be deemed proper, which class a person 
can join, fully cognizant of what he or she is doing, the citizen 
admitted on the basis of full citizenship, the reservation of the 
presidency duly considered, would show his utter unfitness for 
his national status did he relinquish, in the least degree, his 
rights and guarantees, as constitutionally fixed and legally 
defined. 
One German American army officer was sentenced to 25 years at 
hard labor at Leavenworth for having written a letter to the War De- 
partment, declaring that as his sympathies for Germany did not fit 
him to act a soldier in the fighting line, he desired to resign. He was 
nevertheless sent to France in the hope that it "would cause his sense 
of propriety to reassert itself." Later, when Pershing reported that 
there had been no change, he was sent back to the United States for 
trial, with the above result. The "Times" said the papers, and docu- 
ments seized in his home would not be published. "These papers are 
said to show that the convicted man was an active friend of Germany 
in this country (his wife was born there), and that in the early part 
of the war he subscribed to one of the German war loans, paying 

66 



his subscription in installments." This was the extent of the proof, 
so far as known. Another officer of German descent could not be 
confirmed when his name was sent in for promotion to brigadier 
general. 

One of the most sensational trials was that against Albert Paul 
Fricke, in New York, charged with high treason. Delancey Nicol, a 
famous attorney, was specially engaged to prosecute the case. Fricke 
was acquitted by a jury. This result was noticed in an obscure part 
of the papers, whereas Fricke's arrest, indictment and the details of 
the case at many stages was spread under screaming headlines in- 
variably. Paul C. H. Hennig, holding a responsible position as super- 
intendent in the E. W. Bliss Co. plant in Brooklyn, was announced to 
have been caught red-handed tampering with the gyroscopes for 
torpedoes manufactured by the company for the Government. It was 
described as a plot so to manipulate the gyroscope as, to reverse the 
course of the torpedo and discharge it against the vessel from which 
it was released, thus blowing the ship out of the water. At the trial 
it was testified that Hennig could not have accomplished any such 
purpose had he desired, as the torpedoes passed through numerous 
other hands after leaving his and were carefully inspected at every 
stage of their manufacture. He was acquitted by a jury, but the trial 
had ruined him financially. 

Two years before the war, a Lutheran minister, Rev. Jaeger, was 
assassinated in his home in Indiana for being pro-German. On April 
5, 1918, Robert B. Prager was lynched by a mob of boys and drunken 
men at Collinsville, Illinois, for being a German. The acquittal of the 
men was received with public jubilation, bon fires and concert by a 
Naval Reserve band. At West Frankfort, 111., according to a press 
dispatch of March 25, 1918, "500 men seized Mrs. Frances Bergen, a 
woman of Bohemian birth, from municipal officers, rode her on a rail 
through the main street of the town, and compelled her to wave the 
American flag throughout the demonstration. At frequent intervals 
the procession paused while Mrs. Bergen was compelled to shout 
praise for President Wilson." 

A law evidently designed to hurt citizens of German descent was 
passed in Chicago, and a dispatch of March 26, 1918, gleefully an- 
nounced that "six thousand aliens will lose their rights to conduct 
business in Chicago, May 1, when the ordinance passed by the City 
Council refusing licenses to all persons not United States citizens 
takes effect. Brewers, saloon keepers, restaurant keepers, tailors, 
bakers, junk dealers and others for whom a license from the city is 
required will be affected by the new law." In this manner judges 
were forced from the bench and even compelled to fly for their lives, 
teachers were ousted out of their places, and professors frozen out of 
their professorships in universities. Citizens to the number of thou- 
sands were made outcasts in the country of their birth or adoption, 

67 



and they were asking themselves "why?" without getting an answer. 
The German plotters spoken of by leading officials of the government 
as menacing the safety of the government, had not materialized; the 
danger of the "hyphen" had been exaggerated. 

Under the extraordinary power given to irresponsible organizations 
and individuals by the repressive legislation enacted by Congress, the 
abuses which ensued were harrowing to any one with the least con- 
scious regard for the institutions of his country. In New York a bo}- 
was sentenced to three months in jail for circulating a leaflet contain- 
ing extracts from the Declaration of Independence, emphasis being 
laid on the fact by the court that certain passages, construed to be 
an incitement to sedition, were printed in black type. An appeal to a 
higher court fortunately nullified the verdict. A woman was knocked 
down in the streets of New York by a man for speaking German, and 
the court discharged the brute without a reprimand. From all parts 
of the country reports of outrages against citizens with German names 
were of daily occurrence. Men were carried off by groups of hooli- 
gans, stripped and whipped, or tarred and feathered. The same indi- 
viduals who had themselves expressed sympathy for the cause of the 
Central Powers in conversations with their neighbors, suddenly turned 
informers, and professed to be proud of their betrayal of confidence. 
Everywhere men were indicted for treason who on trial were ac- 
quitted by the juries who heard their cases. 

Not until the mob spirit everywhere assumed such a menacing as- 
pect that no citizen dared trust his own friend, and bloodshed and 
violence began to run rampant, came any utterance from administra- 
tion sources designed to check the reign of terror, and then the warn- 
ings were couched in such conservative language that they could be ap- 
plied as a rebuke only to extreme cases of fanatical madness. 

Not only was the press doing yeoman's duty in the suppression of 
human rights, but the pulpit, the bar and the theaters and film com- 
panies combined to lash the ignorant into a state of maniacal fury 
and incited them to further outrages. A few judges, here and there, 
stood out in bold relief for their attitude in defense of constitutional 
government and the right of the individual under the same. 

One of the most dastardly outrages was enacted near Florence, Ky., 
October 28, 1917, when a masked mob seized Prof. Herbert S. Bigelow, 
a prominent citizen of Cincinnati, Ohio, tied him to a tree in the woods 
and horse-whipped him for advocating the constitutional rights of 
American citizens. 

The manner in which terrorism was carried out is well illustrated 
by events in New York City. Bazaars were everywhere held in aid 
of the cause of army and navy and the associated governments, and 
committees scoured the city for subscriptions and support. Among 

68 



the events organized for this ostensible purpose was the Army and 
Navy Bazaar. The sum of $72,000 was taken in, but only $700 went 
to Uncle Sam's soldiers and sailors. The rest went for commissions 
and expenses. This affair was used to terrorize German Americans 
on a large scale in order to press money out of them. An investigation 
brought out evidence, supplied by William S. Moore, secretary of the 
Guaranty Trust Company, who was treasurer of the bazaar, that 
''German citizens and citizens of German descent had been threatened 
with accusations of disloyalty by collectors of the bazaar." An even- 
ing paper stated: "He admitted to the prosecutor that during the 
preparations for the bazaar several complaints that New Yorkers of 
German blood had been solicited, with the threat that they would be 
reported for internment if they refused to contribute, had been made 
to the bazaar officials." 

Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labor, during 
the war declared that 600 liberal periodicals had been interfered with 
by the Post Office Department under the power given the Postmaster 
General to censor the American press. A large number of papers 
were harrassed, their editors arrested, some charged with treason or 
other high crime; and a few — a very few — were indicted. One ef- 
fectual way of putting a stop to a publication which, though no 
grounds existed for its suppression, yet proved offensive by its out- 
spoken defense of American principles, was to cancel its second-class 
mailing privilege. Under this privilege a paper enjoys a pound-rate 
postage, instead of being obliged to pay one cent or more for every 
copy mailed. 

This was the course pursued toward the weekly, "Issues and 
Events," which, with "The Fatherland (now Viereck's "American 
Monthly"), was started in 1914 to combat the pro-Ally campaign under 
Lord Northcliffe. After some five or six issues were stopped from 
going through the mails, the paper taking steps to reincorporate, be- 
came "The American Liberal," but after only four issues was denied 
the second-class mailing privilege, and was forced to suspend. 

The issue of March 23, 1918, was stopped for printing Theodore 
Sutro's plea before the Senate Committee as attorney for the German- 
American Alliance, which was having its charter canceled by a bill 
introduced by Senator King, of Utah. The issue of April 6, 1918, was 
stopped. It contained a compilation of the outrages against German 
Americans in all parts of the country under the heading,' "A Reign of 
Terror." The issue of April 13 was stopped. It contained a quotation 
from Carl Schurz on the freedom of speech and press, and a statement 
of Abraham Lincoln on reverence for the law; also an article on the 
seizure of a list of 40,000 subscribers to the German war bonds by the 
then attorney general of New York. 

The next number to be stopped was the issue of May 11, containing 
an article, "The Right of Free Speech Defined by a Distinguished 

69 



Federal Judge to Roosevelt and by Judge Hand to the Jury Trying 
'The Masses' Case," and an article showing that the Germans had sub- 
scribed a larger amount to the Liberty Loan than any other group of 
foreign-born citizens. 

The June 1 issue was next stopped. It contained the address of 
Melville E. Stone, general manager of the Associated Press, before 
the St. Louis Commercial Club, in which he denied the truth of the 
stories of Belgian atrocities after a personal investigation of numer- 
ous cases in France and Belgium. > The June 8 issue also was stopped. 
The offensive material obviously consisted of extracts from a pam- 
phlet issued by the National Civil Liberties Bureau, "The Truth 
About the L W. W." It presented a compilation of extracts from the 
works of industrial investigators and noted economists, and was 
printed as a matter of news with no idea of propagandizing the cause 
of the I. W. W. 

The paper was rapidly losing its footing under this heroic treatment 
of the Post Office censorship, although no notoriety was attached to 
the course. On June 22 the first issue of "The American Liberal" 
appeared, in which an attempt was made to avoid anything that could 
give excuse for interference, the chief desire being to protect the 
stockholders and creditors. But after the fourth issue a peremptory 
order canceling the second-class mailing privilege put an effectual 
stop to further efforts to continue the uneven struggle. 

Immediately after, the affairs of the paper became a subject of 
serious concern in various secret service branches of the government. 
A raid was made on a prominent citizen in the town of Reading and 
letters were found showing that he had at one time aided the paper 
in the sum of $100. This was heralded as evidence of some sinister 
conspiracy to destroy the government. A raid was made on the ofihce 
of the paper and every letter on file was seized to discover proof of 
fraud and bad faith on the part of certain employes of the office, and 
to establish some connection with German plotters. Investigations 
were instituted; the daily papers were supplied with information that 
contained one part fact and nine parts suggestion, innuendoes and in- 
sinuations. Lawyers who examined the reports said they were vicious, 
but just within the law — that action for libel would probably not ^ 
stick. And that was obviously the purpose of the raids. The promi- 
nent citizen of Reading was allowed to go the even tenor of his 
ways, and the seized documents in the office of the paper were re- 
turned in due season and pronounced harmless. The public had been 
lashed into a feverish state of indignation against some imaginary 
plotters, a legitimate enterprise had been ruined, all the employes of 
the paper had been turned into the street, some filth had been flung 
at the head of the editor, and the country was saved! 

The paper was instrumental, after its suspension, in raising sufficient 
money to satisfy an indebtedness of more than $600 due a private 

70 



benevolent institution in which it had placed a large number of chil- 
dren of distressed aliens affected by the rigorous legislation of 
Congress against alien enemies, and the Mount Plaza Home, which 
it had started for the same purpose, took care of between 800 and 900 
children during the season of 1918 with its own resources. This 
charity had formed a special object of attack and suspicion. 

Even more drastic was the treatment accorded Viereck's "American 
Monthly," though for reasons which need not be detailed here, it was 
not interfered with by the Post Office Department. The principal 
cause for the inquisition, which kept the daily press well supplied 
with Monday morning articles of sensational interest, was Mr, 
Viereck's connection with German propaganda before our entrance 
in the war. The inquisition was conducted by Assistant State's 
Attorney Alfred Becker, then a candidate for Attorney General, who 
was apparently making political capital for himself out of the investi- 
gation. Later Senator Reed showed that Becker's associate in the 
investigation was an individual named Musica, an ex-convict, who 
with a number of associates had, also under Mr. Becker's auspices, 
sought to "frame up" William Randolph Hearst with Bolo Pasha, the 
press being furnished with statements that Mr. Hearst, Bolo Pasha, 
Capt. Boy-Ed and Capt. von Papen had foregathered over a supper at a 
prominent New York hotel for some undefined evil purpose. The 
whole story was shown to be a fabrication. 

The daily press teemed with headlines like this: "Letters Seized 
by Millions in Raid — Alleged Seditious Matter Taken After Over 
300 Search Warrants Are Issued Secretly — ^Anti-War Bodies on 
List." (New York "Times." August 30, 1918.) "Teuton Propa- 
ganda Board Now Known — Attorney General Promises that Names 
of Americans Involved Will be Made Public — Kiaiiser's Machine 
Worked Under the Cloak of the German Red Cross;" "Teuton 
Propaganda Paid for by Rumely — Gave Hammerling $205,000 in 
Cash for Space in Foreign Language Newspapers — Germans Planned 
$1,500,000 Good Will Campaign, Expecting U-Boats to End War in 
June, 1917"; "'Charity' Millions a Propaganda Fund — Becker Ex- 
poses Fraud of German Agents Here — Deputy Attorney General 
Says He Expects to Implicate 'Journalists' Among Others"; (New 
York "Evening Post," August 19, 1918;) "Propaganda Hunt by Fed- 
eral Agents — Homes and Offices Searched in Cities Wide Apart 
Under Government Warrants — Visit Plants in Reading — Correspond- 
ence and Documents of Dr. Michael Singer Seized in Chicago," etc. 

All books bearing on the European struggle, written long before 
our entrance into the war, many of them of a sociological character, 
others dealing with historical subjects, were placed in an index ex- 
purgatorious. Books discontinued the day we entered the war were 
sent for by reputable persons in the hope of obtaining evidence of 
violation of law against those issuing them. Indiscriminately, every- 

71 



where, names of well-known citizens of German descent, many of^ 
them native-born, ^were bandied about in the newspapers as spies 
and plotters, their homes and offices were raided, their papers 
seized — and there matters ended. Among the books described as 
seditious were works by Prof. John W. Burgess, Frank Harris, 
Prof. Scott Nearing, Frederic C. Howe, W. S. Leake, Sven Hadin, 
Theodore Wilson Wilson, Arthur Daniels, E. G. Balch, Capshaw 
Carson, E. F. Henderson, Roland Hugins. 

The reaction came when before the Overman Senate Committee 
a list of "suspects" was given out by an agent of the Department 
of Justice. It was headed by Miss Jane Addams. People began to 
realize that if the efforts of this great American woman, actuated 
in her philanthropic work by the most impartial and benevolent 
motives, could be impudently pronounced those of a German plotter 
and propagandist, the indictment against every other person on the list 
must be of uncertain consistency. By slow degrees it became ap- 
parent that certain officials had blundered. When "The Nation" 
had an issue held up for criticizing Samuel Gompers, the zealous 
Solicitor for the Post Office Department, William H. Lamar, was 
suddenly overruled by the President. Li addition, Lamar made a 
bad impression by excluding "The World Tomorrow," represent- 
ing the Fellowship of Reconciliation, of which Jane Addams is 
president. It was practically ordered to cease publication. By the 
President's order it was restored to its rights. 

DeWoody, in charge of the Federal investigations in New York, 
resigned and disappeared from public notice. Bielaski, head of the 
secret service at Washington, resigned. Many of the officials had 
been handsomely advertised but had failed to effect convictions.' 
They had been principally occupied in loading odium on American 
citizens who had acted wholly within their rights. 

Much blame fell to them that attaches legitimately to the American 
Protective League, the National Security League and other voluntary 
spy organizations, whose members did not know the difference be- 
tween testimony and evidence and were continually embarrassing 
the federal officers with over-zealous efforts to convict people, so 
that ultimately Attorney General- Palmer, on succeeding Gregory, 
issued notice repudiating these private organizations. 

A fatal blunder was made on a certain day in New York; thous- 
ands of young men were halted on the streets by men in khaki and 
publicly dragged to a station as "slackers." Attorney General Gregory 
repudiated all responsibility and soon after retired from office. 

The principal agent in keeping the excitement at fever heat in 
New York City was Deputy Attorney General Alfred L. Becker, and 
much of his activity was due to his candidacy for the position of 
Attorney General of the State. His "revelations" were all timed 
with his eye on the primary election, to take place September 3, 

72 



1918. When the United States entered the war he helped to draft 
the radical "Peace and Safety Act," and took charge of investiga- 
tions under its authority. A campaign pamphlet issued by him, en- 
titled "A Brief Account of the Exposure of German Propaganda and 
Intrigue by Deputy Attorney General Alfred L. Becker, Candidate for 
Attorney General at the Republican Primary," cites the following cases 
having come under his investigations: Bolo Pasha, Joseph Caillaux, 
former Premier of France; Adolf Pavenstedt, Hugo Schmidt, Eugen 
Schwerdt, German, ownership or affiliation of two great woolen mills 
placed under control of the Alien Property Custodian; German secret 
codes. Dr. Edward A. Rumely's ownership of the New York "Mail,"; 
German and Austria-Hungarian war loan subscribers, George S. 
Viereck, Dr. William Bayard Hale and Louis Hammerling, and he 
dwelt on his efforts toward "fearlessly exposing the activities of the 
above and many others who sought to keep the United States out of 
the war." Among the subjects investigated by him were enumerated 
the following offenses: "Praising German 'kultur'"; "defending 
Germany against the charge of instigating the war"; "cursing England 
and Japan and sneering at Italy"; "advocating war with Mexico"; 
"whining that France was 'bled white'"; "hypocritical appeals for 
German peace"; "preaching that Germany was sure to win." The 
pamphlet carried the endorsement of Col. Roosevelt: "I am heartily 
in favor of the nomination of Mr. Becker because as Deputy 
Attorney General in charge of investigating war conspiracies, he has 
done more to expose and stamp out German propaganda than any 
other city, state or federal official." 

When Becker's unscrupulous methods were exposed by Senator 
Reed before the Overman Committee of the United States Senate 
and it was shown that he had been employing a number of ex- 
convicts parading under assumed names as his assistants, in order 
to procure evidence on which to convict men summoned before him, 
his star began to set. In the primaries he was decisively defeated 
and shortly after he retired to private practice as a lawyer. 

England Threatens the United States. — On September 7, 1916, some 
remarkable statements were made in the Senate by Senator Chamber- 
lain, of Oregon, and later replied to by Senator Williams. 

The moment for war had- not arrived, the Presidential election 
was still two months off. Senators were speaking their minds con- 
cerning the arbitrary acts of England against the United States, and 
Senator Chamberlain, representing the great salmon and other fish- 
ing interests of the Northwest, told how they were being destroyed 
by the Canadian railways and other agencies, "How?" asked Mr. 
Chamberlain, "not by any act of Parliament of the Canadian Gov- 
ernment, but by orders in council, pursuing the same course in Can- 
ada that the British Government pursues in England and on the 
high seas for the purpose of destroying not only the commerce of 

73 



our own country but the commerce of any other neutral country 
that it sees fit to destroy." 

The Senator said: "There is absolutely too much Toryism in the 
Congress of the United States, both in the House and in the Senate." 

In the course of his speech, he reviewed in detail England's aggres- 
sions and diplomatic victories over the United States, and it devel- 
oped that in the most high-handed manner England was actually 
threatening us. Senator Jones, of Washington, being conceded the 
floor by his colleagues, said: • 

"I read the other day an extract from a letter I received from the 
Acting Secretary of State, in which he said this: 

" 'On July 12 the department received an informal and confi- 
dential communication from the British Ambassador stating that 
the Canadian Government has requested him to say that the 
passage of the House Bill 15339 would affect the relations of 
the two countries, and might cause the Canadian Government 
to enact retaliatory legislation.' 

Nominally a question of issue between this country and Canada, 
the part that England was prepared to play in the matter was shown 
by the fact that the British Ambassador was acting as the agent of 
Canada, a British colony. 

Senator Chamberlain resumed his speech, saying: 

*Tt is the same old threat that is always made when America 
undertakes to assert her rights against the British Government. 
We do not want to get into trouble with Great Britain, nor 
any other country, but we do want to protect our own rights; 
and if in order to do it we must suffer retaliation in some 
other line or at some other place, why, Mr. President, let 
us at whatever cost make the effort to protect ourselves and 
let these retaliatory measures come whenever and wherever 
they see fit to bring them. 

"Why, there are some of our friends so tender-footed and 
so fearful of offending the majesty of Great Britain that they 
do not want to retain any of these so-called retaliatory pro- 
visions in this bill; and, yet, in violation of every treaty obli- 
gation, we find that Great Britain has not only been interfering 
with our commerce but is doing the very things that this 
measure is intended to relieve against; not only blacklisting 
our merchants but opening and censoring our mails. Only a 
few days ago I got a letter from a constituent of mine inclos- 
ing a letter from his good old mother in Germany, who wrote 
him that she had not heard from him for months, and yet he 
has been writing to her every week. Why? Because on the 
plea of military or other necessity Great Britain is invading 
the mails of the United States even when addressed to neutrals 
or neutral countries, and taking from the mail pouches private 
letters and every other kind, except such as may be protected 
not by international law — because they violate international 
law — but by special agreement between that country and this; 
not only letters but drafts and money and papers and every- 
thing else. I have letters from a prominent man in Pennsyl- 

74 



vania who tells me that letters containing orders to his house 
from neutral countries are opened, the orders taken out and 
sent to British manufacturing establishments, and there filled; 
and the Government that has done these things has the im- 
pudence, as suggested by the letter addressed to the Senator 
from Washington, to insist that if we enact such legislation 
as that proposed and which we deem necessary to protect our 
people and our country, she will retaliate in some way. She 
can not retaliate any worse than she has done, Mr. President, 
without law, without authority, and in violation of every national 
and international right. 

"I know that there are Senators here who do not agree 
with me. I heard a distinguished gentleman say tonight that 
Great Britain was fighting our battles. If that be true, does 
she find it necessary, in fighting our battles, to destroy our 
commerce, to rifle our mail sacks, to take our money, to pre- 
vent our intercourse with neutrals, and to do everything or 
anything to our injury, whether sanctioned by the laws of 
nations or in spite of them? 

"I get tired of hearing this, Mr. President. Until the United 
States has the courage that Great Britain has always had to 
assert her rights and dare maintain them, the United States 
may expect to be imposed upon. One of my reasons for 
advocating preparation for self-defense was to let the world 
know that from this time on the United States expected to 
protect her citizens and her country and her country's inter- 
ests at all hazards; and the very fact that she is prepared to 
assert those rights when occasion requires and demands is all 
that it will be necessary to do. She will never have to utilize 
her resources for war. 

"Mr. President, I serve notice on the Senate now that I 
propose to introduce a bill at the next session of Congress 
embodying the provision under consideration and try to call 
it to the attention of the Senate, and, if necessary, to the 
attention of the country, and to show the country who is respon- 
sible for this base surrender of our rights to the demands 
of the Canadian Government. I want to protest as loudly as I 
can against Sir Joseph Pope or any other Canadian ofificial or 
the representatives of any other foreign Government coming 
over here, either to the Executive Chambers or to the Depart- 
ment of State or to any other department of the Government, 
unless duly accredited, and interfering with the enactment of 
laws by the American Congress that the American people feel 
are necessar/ for their protection and the protection of their 
commerce. I think if any American citizen ever dared to enter 
upon such a course without an invitation, there ought to be 
some way found to punish him for attempting to interfere with 
the legislation proposed by a foreign government in its own way 
and for its own purposes." 

Was the Senator, in the closing sentence, referring to any par- 
ticular American citizen — to a citizen acfing as the attorney for 
a foreign government and sustaining close relations to a distinguished 
member of the Cabinet? 

75 



On September 7 Senator Williams, of Mississippi, undertook to 
defend the Canadian Government, and incidentally described a hypo- 
thetical condition which eventually became a reality as to the Ger- 
man element — that of their children killing the children of their 
kin, against which, as to Canada, Williams forefended with religious 
protestations. 

Mr. WILLIAMS. Mr. President, there is just one thing that 
even my friend George Chamberlain cannot do. He cannot 
create war between us and the men and the women and the 
children of Canada. We are too near akin to one another in 
blood and in language and in literature and in law and in every- 
thing else that makes men and women akin to one another for 
that. 

The greatest crime that the world could possibly witness 
would be a war between the people of the United States and 
the people of Canada. It is unthinkable from a sane man's 
standpoint, no matter what happens, no matter what occurs. . . . 

The Senator says that we assert and we dare to maintain 
our rights. Of course we do. So do they assert and so do 
they dare maintain their rights, and they are weaker than we. 
All the more reason why we should be considerate in our 
treatment of them, and by God's blessing we are going to be. 
We are not hunting retaliation with Canada, either from her 
ports or from ours. We are seeking nothing except justice in 
the world. 

There is one more thing to be said, Mr. President. A path- 
way of commercial retaliation is a pathway of war. In the 
long run it means that. It can not mean anything else. What 
we want is the old Democratic standpoint of the utmost free- 
trade relations with everybody on the earth. The utmost they 
grant us we ought to grant them. That spells peace; that 
spells amity; that spells friendship. The opposite course spells 
war in the long run, and to attempt to convert these 3,000 
miles of boundary between us and Canada into an area of re- 
taliation and trade hostility is to convert it ultimately into a 
relationship of war. 

I, for one, have been opposed to it all the time, and I am 
opposed to it now. I can not conceive of a greater crime than 
having our children kill the children of the Canadians or have 
their children kill our children in an absolutely useless species 
of hostility. If we start with trade hostilities, we will wind up 
with warlike hostilities. 

Senator Williams was one of the foremost in defending Great 
Britain and inciting to war with Germany. Senator Chamberlain 
had said that there was entirely too much Toryism in the Senate 
as well as in the House; but though he had mentioned no names, 
the Toryism of which he had referred stood self-revealed the next 
day. 

France's Friendship for the United States. — The "French and In- 
dian wars" with which the American settlers had to contend in the 

76 



early history of the colonies long antedated the Revolution, and mas- 
sacres were instigated by French policy of conquest and retaliation. 
In the Revolution a number of patriotic Frenchmen, nursing a long 
grievance against France's ancient enemy, England, saw opportunity 
to enfeeble their country's hated rival. Encouraged by Frederick the 
Great, who had a score to settle with England for .the treachery 
which Bute had practiced against him in paying secret subsidies to 
Frederick's enemy, Austria, while England was allied with him, by 
heroic efforts they succeeded in sending succor to the colonies in 
the form of troops (many of them Germans) under Lafayette. This 
is so well understood that the American historian, Benson J. Lossing, 
specifically points out in his writings what he calls the "superstition" 
that we owe our "being as a nation to the generosity of the French 
monarch and the gallantry of French warriors." Revealing the mo- 
tives that governed France, he writes: 

In the Seven Years War. which ended with the treaty of 1763, 
France had been thoroughly humbled by England. Her pride 
had been wounded. She had been shorii of vast possessions in 
America and Asia. She had been compelled, by the terms of the 
treaty, to cast down the fortifications of Dunkirk and to submit 
forever to the presence of an English commissioner, without 
whose consent not a single paving stone might be moved on the 
quay or in the harbor of a French maritime city. This was an 
insult too grievous to be borne with equanimity. Its keenness 
was maintained by the tone of English diplomacy, which was 
that of a conqueror — harsh, arrogant, and often uncivil. A desire 
for relief from the shame became a vital principle of French 
policy, and the most sleepless vigilance was maintained for the 
discovery of an opportunity to avenge the injury and efface the 
mortification. 

The quarrel between Great Britain and her colonies, which 
rapidly assumed the phase of contest after the port of Boston 
was closed, early in the summer of 1774. attracted the notice and 
stimulated the hope of the French government. But it seemed 
hardly possible for a few colonists to hold a successful or even 
effective contest with powerful England— "the mistress of the 
seas"; and it was not until the proceedings of the First Conti- 
nental Congress had been read in Europe, the skirmish at Lex- 
ington and the capture of Ticonderoga had occurred, and the 
Second Congress had met, thrown down the gauntlet of defiance 
at the feet of the British ministry and been proclaimed to be 
"rebels" that the French cabinet saw gleams of sure promise 
that England's present trouble would be sufficiently serious to 
give France the coveted opportunity to strike her a damaging, 
blow. 

Lossing sums up our debt to France in the following words: 

That all assistance was afforded, primarily, as a part of a 

State policy for the benefit of France; 
That the French people as such never assisted the Americans; 

for the French democracy did not comprehend the nature of 

77 



the struggle, and had no opportunity for expression, and the 
aristocracy, like the government, had no sympathy with their 
cause; 

That the first and most needed assistance was from a French 
citizen (Beaumarchais), favored by his government for State 
purposes, who hoped to help himself and his government; 

That, with the exception of the services of Lafayette and a 
few other Frenchmen, at all times, and those of the army under 
Rochambeau, and the navy under De Grasse, for a few weeks 
in the seventh year of the struggle, the Americans derived no 
material aid from the French; 

That the moral support offered by the alliance was injurious 
because it was more than counterpoised by the relaxation of 
effort and vigilance which a reliance upon others is calculated 
to inspire, and the creation of hopes which were followed by 
disappointment; 

That the advantages gained by the French over the English, 
because of their co-operation with the Americans, were equiva- 
lent to any which the Americans acquired by the alliance; 

That neither party then rendered assistance to the other be- 
cause of any good will mutually existing, but as a means of 
securing mutual benefits; and 

That the Americans would doubtless have secured their inde- 
pendence and peace sooner without their entanglements with 
the French than with it, 

A candid consideration of these facts, in the light of present 
knowledge on the subject, compels us to conclude that there is 
no debt of gratitude due from Americans to France for services 
in securing their independence of Great Britain which is not 
cancelled by the services done by the Americans at the same 
time in securing for France important advantages over Great 
Britain. And when we consider these facts and the conduct 
of the French toward us during a large portion of the final de- 
cade of the last century, and of the decade of this just closed — 
the hostile attitude, in our national infancy, of the inflated 
Directory, sustained by the French people, and the equally hos- 
tile attitude, in the hour of our greatest national distress, of 
the imperial cabinet, also sustained by the French people, Amer- 
icans cannot be expected to endure with absolute complacency 
the egotism which untruthfully asserts that they owe their 
existence as a nation to the generosity and valor of the French. 

Though President Wilson brought back from Paris a treaty of 
alliance between the United States, England and France, which he 
asked the Senate, on July 29, 1919, to ratify, and declared that "we are 
bound to France by ties of friendship which we have always regarded 
and shall always regard as peculiarly sacred," he stated in a much 
earlier work, "The State," that though the Congress at Philadelphia 
had explicitly commanded Franklin, Adams and Jay, the American 
commissioners, to be guided by the wishes of the French court in 
the peace negotiations, "it proved impracticable, nevertheless, to act 
with France; for she conducted herself, not as the ingenuous friend 
of the United States, but only as the enemy of England, and, as first 

78 



and always, a subtle strategist for her own interests and advantage. 
The American commissioners were not tricked, and came to terms sep- 
arately with the English." 

Having accomplished the object of giving aid in humbling England 
through the loss of her colonies, the French, far from remaining 
our friends, became our enemies, and from 1797 to 1835 we find the 
messages of the Presidents abounding in complaints of the treatment 
France was according our young merchant marine on the high seas. 
In 1798 we found ourselves in a state of war with France. ''Such an 
outburst had not been known," says the historian, Elson, "since the 
Battle of Lexington." Patriotic songs were written, and one of these, 
"Hail, Columbia," still lives in our literature. Washington was again 
called to the command of the American army, but beyond some en- 
gagements at sea, no blows were actually struck. 

But ere long France was again at her old tricks. In 1851 we were 
on the eve of war over the Hawaiian Islands, which France had seized, 
though knowing that she could never hold them save as the result 
of a successful war. On June 18, 1851, Secretary of State Webster 
instructed the American minister in Paris to say that the further en- 
forcement of the French demands against Hawaii "would tend seri- 
ously to disturb our friendly relations with the French government." 
The third conspicuous instance of France's persistent enmity to us 
was at a time when President Lincoln was harrassed by the distress- 
ing events of the most critical hours of the rebellion and the possibil- 
ity of England and France together undertaking the cause of the 
Confederacy. England had been approached by the Emperor, Napo- 
leon III, with a proposal for an alliance, and in both countries the 
Union cause was at its lowest ebb. 

Justin McCarthy in his "History of Our Own Times" (II, p. 231) 
says: "The Southern scheme found support only in England and 
in France. In all other European countries the sympathy of the 
people and government alike went with the North. . . . Assur- 
ances of friendship came from all civilized countries to the Northern 
States except from England and France alone." 

While the Northern and Southern States were engaged in a death 
grapple, Napoleon III was defying the Monroe Doctrine by invading 
Mexico, and in 1862 was sending instructions to the French general, 
Forey, as follows: 

People will ask you why we sacrifice men and money to estab- 
lish a government in Mexico. In the present state of civiliza- 
tion the development of America can no longer be a matter of 
' indifference to Europe. . . . It is not at all to our i-nterest 
that they should come in possession of the entire Gulf of Mexico, 
to rule from there the destinies of the Antilles and South Amer- 
ica, and control the products of the New World. 
After Lee's surrender General Slaughter of the Confederate army 
opened negotiations with the French Marshal Bazaine for the trans- 

79 



fer of 25,000 Confederate soldiers to Mexico, and many distinguished 
Confederate officers cast their lot with the French to establish Maxi- 
milian on the throne. General Price was commissioned to recruit an 
imperial army in the Confederate States. Governor Harris of Ten- 
nessee and other Americans naturalized as Mexicans and now took 
the lead in a colonization scheme of vast proportions. The North 
became thoroughly alarmed. A French army co-operating with Con- 
federate expatriates could not be tolerated on the Mexican border. 

The government at Washington lodged an emphatic protest with 
the French government, and an army of observation of 50,000 men 
under General Sheridan was dispatched to the Rio Grande, ready 
to cross into Mexico and attack Bazaine at a moment's notice. The 
American minister in Paris was instructed by Seward to insist on a 
withdrawal of the French forces from Mexico, and as the French 
government was in no position to engage in a war in a distant 
country against a veteran army of a million men it was forced to 
yield. 

"The Emperor of the French," writes McCarthy (p. 231), "fully 
believed that the Southern cause was sure to triumph, and that the 
Union would be broken up; he was even willing to hasten what he 
assumed to be the unavoidable end. He was anxious that England 
should join with him in some measures to facilitate the success of 
the South by recognizing the Government of the Southern Confed- 
eration. He got up the Mexican intervention, which assuredly he 
would never have attempted if he had not been persuaded that the 
Union was on the eve of disruption." 

The French populace was enthusiastically on the side of Napoleon 
in the Mexican adventure, as attested by the proceedings in the 
French legislature, especially by the scenes in the Senate, February 
24, 1862, and in the Corps Legislatif, June 26 of the same year, when 
Billault, Minister of Foreign Affairs, spoke on French aims in Mexico. 
On March 23, 1865, Druyn de Lluys, the French Premier, notified 
Mr. Seward, our Secretary of State, that American intervention in 
favor of Juarez, the Mexican patriot, would lead to a declaration of 
war on the part of France. The necessary military preparations had 
been made by Marshal Bazaine, who, as related by Paul Garlot in 
"L'Empire de Maximilian" (Paris, 1890), had erected "fortified sup- 
ports" at the United States frontier and made certain "arrangements" 
with Confederate leaders. 

"In our dark hours and the great convulsions of our war,'* said 
Charles Sumner, then chairman of the Committee on Foreign Rela- 
tions in the Senate, in New York, September 11, 1863, "France is for- 
getting her traditions." 

Benjamin Franklin. — In his pointed comments on the disfavor 
with which practical politicians regard the independent voter in 

80 



politics, Prof. A. B. Faust, of Cornell University, in his valuable 
work, "The German Element in the United States," says of con- 
ditions in Pennsylvania preceding the Revolution: "The Germans, 
with few exceptions, could not be relied upon either by dema- 
gogues or by astute party men to vote consistently with their party 
organization. The politician catering to the German vote often 
found himself strangely deceived. He never expected that the 
German might think for himself and vote as seemed right to him. 
The politician in his wrath would declare the Germans politically 
incapable. From, his point of view they were un-American. They 
did not cling to one party. The fact of the matter is, they were 
independent voters, and they appeared as such at a very early 
period. Benjamin Franklin made the discovery before the Revolu- 
tionary War, and he was provoked to ah extent surprising in that 
suave diplomatist." In a letter to Peter Collinson, dated Phila- 
delphia, May 9, 1753, Franklin says: 

I am perfectly of your mind that measures of great temper 
are necessary with the Germans, and am not without appre- 
hension that through their indiscretion, or ours, or both, great 
disorders may one day among us. 

Then he speaks of the ignorance of the Germans, their in- 
capability of using the English language, the impossibility of re- 
moving their prejudices — "not being used to liberty, they know not 
how to make a modest use of it," etc. 

They are under no restraint from any ecclesiastical govern- 
ment; they behave, however, submissively enough to the civil 
government, which I wish they may continue to do, for I re- 
member when they modestly declined to meddle in our elections, 
but now they come in droves and carry all before them except 
in one or two counties. 

The last sentence, comments Faust, betrays the learned writer of the 
letter; the uncertainty of their votes is the cause for his accusations 
of ignorance and prejudice. 

On the point of ignorance we get contradictory evidence in the 
same letter. "Few of their children in the country know English. 
They import many books from Germany and of the six printing 
houses in the province, two are entirely German, two are half-German, 
half English, and but two entirely English. (This large use and pro- 
duction of books disproves want of education. Their lack of fa- 
miliarity with the English language was popularly looked upon as 
ignorance. — Faust.) They have one German newspaper and one half 
German. Advertisements intended to be general are now printed in 
Dutch (German) and English. The signs in our streets have inscrip- 
tions in both languages, and in some places, only German. They begin 
of late to make all their bonds and other legal instruments in their 

81 




Group of the Monument Erected to the Memory of the Settlers of 
Germantown, Pa., by Albert Jaegers. 



own language, which (though I think it ought not to be) are allowed 
good in our courts, where the German business so increases that 
there is continued need of interpreters; and I suppose within a few 
years they will also be necessary in the Assembly, to tell one half of 
our legislators what the other half say. In short, unless the stream 
of importation could be turned from this to other colonies, as you 
very judiciously propose, they will soon so outnumber us that the 
advantages we have will, in my opinion, be not able to preserve our 
language, and even our government will become precarious." 

It is obvious from many indications that Benjamin Franklin did not 
adhere to his point of view and learned to regard the Germans in a 
far more favorable light than in 1753, twenty-three years before the 
Declaration of Independence. The Revolution, as Bancroft relates, 
found no Tories among the German settlers of Pennsylvania, but a 
unanimous sentiment for independence, and their full quota of fight- 
ing men in the American ranks. 

When queried before the English Parliament concerning the dis- 
satisfaction of the Americans with the Stamp Act, he was asked how 
many Germans were in Pennsylvania. His answer was, "About one- 
third of the whole population, but I cannot tell with certainty." Again 
the question was put whether any part of them had seen service in 
Europe. He answered, "Many, as well in Europe as America." 

When asked whether they were as dissatisfied with the Stamp Act 
as the native population, he said, "Yes, even more, as they are justified, 
because in many cases they must pay double for their stamp paper 
and parchments." 

If the German element felt the injustice of the Stamp Act more 
keenly than their neighbors, the conclusion is patent that they could 
not have been ignorant, as the illiterate and ignorant were least af- 
fected by its harshness. Even the honor of being the first printer of 
German books belongs to Franklin, for he furnished three volumes of 
mystical songs in German for Conrad Beissel, 1730-36. When the 
Philosophical Society of Philadelphia (1743) agitated for the founda- 
tion of the "Public Academy of the City of Philadelphia," the institu- 
tion that later developed into the University of Pennsylvania, Franklin 
designed its curriculum and recommended the study of German and 
French, besides English. In 1766 he attended a meeting of the Royal 
Society of Science in Gottingen while on a trip through Germany and 
visited Dr. Hartmann in Hanover to see his apparatus for electrical 
experiments. He was made a member of the Gottingen learned society. 

Conclusive proof of Franklin's change of view is furnished by his 
testimony before a committee of the British House of Commons in 
1766. Referring to the Germans, who, he said, .constituted about one- 
third of the population of 160,000 whites in Pennsylvania, he described 
them as "a people who brought with them the greatest of wealth — 

83 



^ 



industry and integrity, and characters that had been superpoised and 
developed by years of suffering and persecution." (Penn. Hist. 
Magazine, iv, 3.) 

Frederick the Great and the American Colonies. — Because Fred- 
erick the Great was a Hohenzollern and a Prussian, it became the 
fashion early in the course of the war to frown upon all mention 
of his connection with the revolutionary struggle of our American 
forefathers, and his statue before the military college, which was 
unveiled with so much ceremony during President Roosevelt's term, 
was discreetly taken from its pediment and consigned to the ob- 
scurity of a cellar as soon as we entered the war. Yet Frederick 
was the sincere friend of the Colonies and contributed largely if 
not vitally to the success of the struggle for American independence. 
The evidence rests upon something better than tradition. A more 
just opinion of his interest in the success of the Colonies than has 
been expressed of late by his detractors is contained in the works 
of English and American writers of history having access to the 
facts, who were not under the spell of active belligerency and the 
influence of a propaganda that has magically transformed George 
III into a "German king." 

Had Russia in 1778 formed an alliance with England, Russian 
troops would have swelled the forces arrayed against the American 
patriots to such proportions that the result of the struggle pre- 
sumably would have been dififerent. The influence of Prussia in 
that relation is a chapter of history practically closed to mosi 
students. But for immense bribes to Count Panin, Catherine the 
Great's premier, paid by Frederick the Great, as testified by British 
authorities, Russia would have extended aid to England in her 
struggle with the Colonies which might have proved decisive. 

It was England's interest to secure, if possible, the alliance of 
Russia, and, as in the Seven Years War, to involve France in con- 
tinental complications. In 1778 there seemed every reason to expect 
the outbreak of hostilities in Europe. The continuance of the war 
gave an increased importance to an alliance with Russia, and while 
the Dutch appealed to Catherine on the ground that Great Britain 
had broken with Holland solely on account of the armed neutrality, 
the English government offered to hand over Minorca as the price 
of a convention. 

In 1778 Catherine was approached by the English government 
through Sir James Harris and invited to make a defensive and 
offensive alliance. But the opposition of the Premier, Nikolai 
Ivanovich, Count Panin, influenced by' Frederick the Great, pre- 
vented any rapprochement between England and Russia, and 
Catherine declared her inability to join England against France 

84 



unless the English government bound itself to support her against 
the Turks. 

"The Prussian party, headed b}- Paniu at St. Petersburg," writes 
Arthur Hassall, M. A., in "The Balance of Power, 1715-1789," p. 
338; (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1907), "had won its last 
triumph, and all chance for an Anglo-Russian alliance had for the 
moment disappeared. . . . Since 1764 Count Panin had been the 
head of the Prussian party at the Russian capital, and the Prussian 
alliance had been the keystone of Catherine's policy. . . . Fred- 
erick the Great, partly by immense bribes to Panin, had kept 
Catherine true to the existing political system, and had contributed 
to prevent Russian assistance from being given to England during 
the American struggle." (P. 361). 

Writing to his minister in Paris, Goltz, in August and September, 
1777, Frederick said: "You can assure AI. de Maurepas that I have 
no connection whatever with England, nor do I grudge France any 
advantage she may gain in the war with the Colonies. . . . Her 
first interest requires the enfeeblement of Great Britain, and the 
way to do this is to make it lose its colonies in America. . . . The 
present opportunity is more favorable than ever before existed, 
and more favorable than is likely to occur in three centuries. . . 
The independence of the colonies will be worth to France all which 
the war will cost." 

Bancroft writes: "While Frederick was encouraging France to 
strike a decisive blow in favor of the United States, their cause 
found an efficient advocate in Marie Antoinette." On April 7, 1777, 
Frederick wrote: "France knows perfectly well that it has abso- 
lutely nothing to apprehend from me in case of war with England. 
... If it (the English crown) would give me all the millions 
possible I would not furnish it two small files of my troops to 
serve against the colonies. Neither can it expect from me a guaranty 
of its electorate of Hanover." 

Bancroft comments: "The people of England cherished the fame 
of the Prussian king as in some measure their own. Not aware 
how basely Bute had betrayed him, they unanimously desired the 
renewal of his. alliance; and the ministry sought to open the way 
for it through his envoy in France." Frederick replied, "No man 
is further removed than myself from having connections with Eng- 
land. We will remain on the same footing on which we are with 
her." Bancroft says: "Frederick expressed more freely his sym- 
pathy with the United States." 

The port of Emden could not receive their cruisers for want of 
a fleet or a fort to defend them from insult.; but he offered them an 
asylum in the Baltic at Danzig. He attempted, though in vain, to 
dissuade the Prince of Anspach from furnishing troops to England, 
and he forbade the subsidiary troops both of Anspach and Hesse to 

85 



pass through his domains. The prohibition which was made as 
public as possible, and just as the news arrived of the surrender of 
Burgoyne, resounded through Europe; and he announced to the 
Americans that it was given him "to testify his good will to them," 

Every facility was afforded to the American commissioners to 
purchase and ship arms from Prussia. Before the end of 1777 he 
promised not to be the last to recognize the independence of the 
United States, and in January, 1778, his minister, Schulenburg, 
wrote officially to one of the commissioners in Paris: "The king 
desires that your generous efforts may be crowned with complete 
success. He will not hesitate to recognize your independency when 
France, which is more directly interested in the event of the con- 
test, shall have given the example." 

'T have no wish to dissemble," Frederick wrote in answer to the 
suggestion of an English alliance; "whatever pains may be taken, 
I will never lend myself to an alliance with England. I am not 
like so many German princes, to be gained for money." Of the 
Landgrave of Hesse, he said: "Do not attribute his education to 
me. Were he a graduate of my school he would never have sold 
his subjects to the English as they drive cattle to the shambles. 
He a preceptor of sovereigns? The sordid passion for gain is the 
only motive of his vile procedure." 

Foerster, in "Friederich der Grosse" (1871, viii) quotes the great 
King as follows: "This subject leads me to speak of princes who 
conduct a dishonorable traffic in the blood of their people. Their 
troops belong to the highest bidder. It is a sort of auction at which 
those paying the highest subsidies lead the soldiers of these un- 
worthy rulers to the shambles. Such princes ought to blush at 
their baseness in selling the lives of people whom, as fathers of 
their countries, they ought to protect. These little tyrants should 
hear the opinion of mankind, which is one of contempt for the 
misuse of their power." 

The "Fourteen Points." — On January 8, 1917, less than sixty days 
before we found ourselves in a state of war with German)^, President 
Wilson presented to Congress the following fourteen specific con- 
siderations as necessary to world peace: 

1. Open covenants of peace without private international under- 
standings. 

2. Absolute freedom of the seas in peace or war, except as they 
may be closed by international action. 

3. Removal of all economic barriers and establishment of equality 
of trade conditions among nations consenting to peace and asso- 
ciating themselves for its maintenance. 

4. Guarantees for the reduction of national armaments at the lowest 
point consistent with domestic safety. 

86 



5. Impartial adjustment of all colonial claims based upon the prin- 
ciple that the peoples concerned shall have equal weight with the 
interest of the government. 

6. Evacuation of all Russian territory and opportunity for Rus- 
sia's political development. 

7. Evacuation of Belgium without any attempt to limit her sov- 
ereignty. 

8. All French territory to be freed and restored, and France must 
have righted the wrong done in the taking of Alsace-Lorraine. 

9. Readjustment of Italy's frontiers along clearly recognizable lines 
of nationality. 

10. Freest opportunity for the autonomous development of the 
peoples of Austria-Hungary. 

11. Evacuation of Rumania, Servia and Montenegro, with access 
to the sea for Servia, and international guarantees of economic and 
political independence and territorial integrity of the Balkan States. 

12. Secure sovereignty for Turkey's portion of the Ottoman Em- 
pire, but with other nationalities under Turkey's rule assured security 
of life and opportunity for autonomous development, with the Darda- 
nelles permanently opened to all nations. 

13. Establishment of an independent Polish State, including terri- 
tories inhabited by indisputably Polish population, with free access 
to the sea and political and economic independence and territorial 
integrity guaranteed by international covenant. 

14. General association of nations under specific covenants for 
mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity 
to large and small states alike. 

This was the programme laid down for the attainment of peace 
and was accepted by both sides, the Allied powers as well as Germany 
and Austria-Hungary. 

The total disregard of the Fourteen Points in the peace treaty 
proved a grievous disappointment to the majority of the thinking 
people of America. In the final analysis of the work of the Paris peace 
conference it was found that we had achieved not a single point 
of our programme, except as to the last provision, from which 
evolved the so-called League of Nations, subsequently defeated in 
the Senate. 

Instead of "open covenants openly arrived at," the treaty was 
made in secret conference; we did not gain the freedom of the seas, 
but helped Great Britajn to strengthen her command of the seas by 
eliminating her greatest rival; we witnessed no removal of economic 
barriers — not even among the Allies, as the President himself rec- 
ommended an American tariff on dyes; disarmament was decreed 
for Germany and Austria only; self-determination of small nations 
became a dead letter at once as to Ireland, German Austria, the 
German Tyrol, Danzig, Egypt, India, the Boers, Korea, Persia, and 

87 



numerous others, especially where the question involved the self- 
determination of Germans; Hungary's borders were at once invaded 
by Rumania, Serbia and Czecho-Slovakia; Russia was not permitted 
to determine her own fate, as Kolchak was formally recognized 
and supported by the powers; Belgium remains a vassal of England 
and France; in addition to righting the wrong of 1871 by the reces- 
sion of Alsace-Lorraine, the Saar Valley was taken away from Ger- 
many and a plebiscite was ordered in Schleswig, Silesia, and German- 
Poland under the guns of the Entente; Italy's borders were not read- 
justed along national lines, for the Brenner Pass, the Voralsberg, 
parts of Dalmatia and a lease on Fiume provided; the autonomous 
development of Austria-Hungary was interpreted to mean that the 
German-speaking part of Austria was forbidden to unite with Ger- 
many; the independence of the Balk'an States was made subject to 
the invisible government of the Big Four; autonomy for Turkish 
vassal states and the internationalization of the Dardanelles was con- 
strued to mean that these States should become mandatories of the 
Allies and the strait to be under Allied control; Polish freedom 
celebrated its advent with Jewish pogroms, while the League of 
Nations became a league of victors, in which Japan was bribed to 
enter by the cession to her of the Shantung peninsula. 

"Germany has accepted President Wilson's fourteen points," said 
Dr. Mathias Erzberger, "but so have the Allies." 

That President Wilson fully recognized his responsibility and that 
of his European associates under the Fourteen Points is shown by 
his own statement. On December 2, 1918, he said in addressing 
Congress: 

"The Allied Governments have accepted the bases of peace which 
I outlined to the Congress on the 8th of January last, as the Central 
Empires also have, and very reasonably desire my personal counsel 
in their interpretation and application, and it is highly desirable 
that I should give it in order that the sincere desire of our govern- 
ment to contribute without selfish aims of any kind to settlements 
that will be of common benefit to all the nations concerned may be 
fully manifest." 

In an interview printed in the Paris "Temps" of March 25, 1919, 
Count Bernstorlf, former Ambassador to the United States, said: 

"The armistice of November 11 was signed when all the Powers 
interested had accepted the program of peace proposed by President 
Wilson. Germany is determined to keep to this agreement, which 
history will regard, in a way, as the conclusion of. a preliminary 
peace. She herself is ready to submit to the conditions arising from 
it, and she expects all the interested Powers to do the same." 

The President's reversal was diplomatically covered under various 
specious pretexts by the staff of English journalists at the peace 
conference. Sir J. Foster Frazer put it this way: "Mr. Wilson 



has broadened in vision since he came to Paris. He has abandoned 
his purely national point of view," 

The same writer discoursed entertainingly of the methods pur- 
sued in the conference. "Except at intervals," he wrote, "the con- 
ferences are not in public, that is when a certain number of journal- 
ists are permitted to be present. The great things are debated in 
private, and at these private conversations in M. Pichon's room at 
the French Foreign Office, the full representation of the five powers 
is not in attendance. . . . The full conferences of the seventy 
delegates will have but little option but to acquiesce with the con- 
clusion of the ten. . . . It is a perfectly open secret that the three 
men who are 'running the show' are M. Clemenceau, Mr. Wilson and 
Mr. Lloyd George." 

The noble writer frankly admits that the conferences revolved 
around the secret treaties among the Allies instead of the Fourteen 
Points. He reports: 

"We already know there were three secret treaties made dur- 
ing the war and to all of which Great Britain was a party; 
(1) conceding to Italy the Dalmation coast in return for her 
help, (2) the concession of the former German islands in the 
North Pacific to Japan, (3) the promise of Damascus to the 
King of Hedjaz." 

Again he says: "Japan is in possession of the Marshall and Caro- 
line groups of islands in the Pacific, and has a document signed 
by both France and Britain that she shall retain them." 

So much for "open covenants openly arrived at," though they 
do not cover all the secret pacts which determined the conditions of 
peace. 

Only once Mr. Wilson rose to the importance of his mission, 
when he declared that Fiume must go to the Jugo-Slav Republic. 
His announcement was soon followed by an invasion of Fiume under 
d'Annunzio, the Italian poet-patriot, with the apparent secret conni- 
vance of our associates in the war. 

At the peace conference, when it was Germany's turn to be heard, 
it was decided that the interests of all concerned were best served 
by precluding any discussion, and the German delegates, with revo- 
lution and starvation in their back, and with arms wrested from 
their hands by a promise, were left no alternative but to affix their 
signatures to the most violent peace treaty ever consummated. The 
commission, headed by Brockdorf-Rantzau and Scheidemann, resigned 
rather than sign, and a new delegation was named, which signed 
the treaty without being given an opportunity to discuss it. In the 
streets the German delegates were stoned. 

Thus was realized the golden promise held out in the speech Mr. 
Wilson made on the very day that Congress met to declare war: 

89 



"We have no quarrel with the German people. We have no 
feeling toward them but one of sympathy and friendship. It 

was not upon their impulse that their government acted in 
entering the war. It was not with their previous knowledge 
or approval. It was a war determined upon as wars used to 
be determined upon in the old unhappy days when people were 
nowhere consulted by their rulers and wars were provoked 
and waged in the interests of dynasties or of little groups of 
ambitious men who were accustomed to use their fellow men 
as pawns and tools." 

When Germany, in 1871, had France prostrate at her feet, the 
French people were represented at the peace conference by their 
statesmen, just as France was represented at the Peace of Vienna 
after the fall of Napoleon in 1815. Mr. Wilson had said peace must 
not be determined as it was in the Congress of Vienna. Sir Foster 
Frazer furnishes the answer. In 1871 the terms of peace were 
arranged by Bismarck on one side and a full delegation of French 
statesmen on the other. Bismarck relented so far as to release back 
to France the great fortress of Belfort, claiming only the recession 
of Alsace-Lorraine and a war indemnity of five billion francs. So 
far from seeking to crush France, everything possible on the German 
side was done to enable her to recover from the war, and no sooner 
had Paris surrendered, than trainloads of foodstuffs were rushed into 
the city by the Germans to feed the starving population. 

The European allies had first starved Germany, with a loss of 
1,000,000 souls by famine, then severed portions of her territory 
whose possession antedated the American Revolution, on the ground 
of Mr. Wilson's point in behalf of the self-determination of small 
nations, and on top of all left the country in helpless vassalage to her 
enemies, under a war indemnity that staggers humanity. Erzberger 
cried out in despair: 

"I appeal to the i.onscience of America by reminding her of the 
American famine conditions in the years 1862-65. At that time it 
was Germany who sprang to America's aid, and steadied her, sending 
her not only money, but clothes, shoes and machinery as well, thus 
making it possible for the United States to recuperate economically. 

"Today, after half a century, the situation is reversed. Germany 
needs American wheat, fats, meats, gasoline, cotton and copper. 

"Germany's credit is low. If America today stood by Germany 
as Germany stood Dy America fifty years ago, she could furnish us 
foodstuffs and raw materials against German credits and thus help 
us to work ourselves out of debt — and, besides, make money in 
doing so. 

"The German people cannot live on the promises they are getting." 

Fritchie, Barbara — Immortalized by Whittier in a patriotic poem 
bearing her name, in which her defense of the Union flag during the 

90 



Civil War is celebrated, came of an old German family which settled 
in Pennsylvania in colonial times, and her own life spanned the two 
great crises in the history of her country, the founding of the re- 
public and the struggle for the preservation of the Union. She was 
born in Lancaster, Pa., December 3, 1766. Her maiden name was 
Hauser. 

First Germans in Virginia. — Jamestown, Va., the cradle of Anglo- 
Saxon America, is the place where the Germans are met with for the 
first time. The earliest incidents on record are cases of imported 
contract laborers. Those sent to Virginia in 1608 were skilled work- 
men, glass-blowers. Capt. John Smith ("John Smith, the Generall 
Historic of Virginia, New England, the Summer Isles," London, 1624, 
p. 94), characterizing his men, gives the following account of them: 
"labourers . . . that neuer did know what a dayes work was: 
except the Dutch-men (Germans) and Poles, and some dozen others." 
In 1620 four millwrights from Hamburg were sent to the same set- 
tlement to erect saw mills. ("The Records of the Virginia Company," 
ed. S. M. Kingsbury, Washington, 1906, I, pp. 368, Z12, 428). In 
England timber was still sawed by hand. (Edward Eggleston, "The 
Beginners of a Nation," New York, 1896, p. 82). The Germans who 
settled in the Cavalier colony in large numbers about the middle of 
the seventeenth century seem to have been attracted chiefly by the 
profitable tobacco business. The most highly educated citizen of 
Northampton county in 1657 was probably Dr. George Nicholas Hacke, 
a native of Cologne. (Philip Alexander Brue, "Social Life in Virginia 
in the Seventeenth Century," Richmond, Va., 1907, p. 260.) Thomas 
Harmanson, founder of one of the most prominent Eastern Shore 
families, a native of Brandenburg, was naturalized October 24, 1634, by 
an act of the Assembly. (William and Mary College Quarterly, ed. 
L. G. Tyler. Williamsburg. Va.. I. 1892, p. 192.) Johann Sigismund 
Cluverius. owner of a considerable estate in York County, was os- 
tensibly also of German birth. (From "The First Germans in North 
America and the German Element of New Netherlands," by Carl 
Lohr. G. E. Stechert & Co.. New York, 1912.) 

First German Newspapers.^The oldest German newspaper in the 
U. S., the weekly "Republikaner," at Allentown, Pa., ceased publication 
December 21, 1915, after an existence of 150 years. Another old paper 
in the German language, the "Reading Adler" ceased in 1913, after con- 
tinuous publication since November 29, 1796. 

German Americans in Art, Science and Literature. — An analysis of 
a comparatively recent edition of "Who's Who in America" shows a 
list of 385 German-born persons in the United States who have 
achieved fame in art, science and literature, against a total of 424 
English-born persons so distinguished, a remarkable bit of evidence, 

91 



considering that the former were initially handicapped by the neces- 
sity of having to learn a new language in their struggle for recog- 
nition. Nor does this list include a number of Germans credited to 
Austro-Hungary by reason of their birth. 

Dating back to the early decades of 1600 down to the present day, 
the German element has produced a formidable literature, ranging 
from travel descriptions to political works, like Schurz's "Life of 
Henry Clay," von Hoist's important work on American constitutional 
government, George von Bosse's comprehensive volume on the Ger- 
man element, A.B.Faust's "The German Element in the United States," 
Seidensticker's and Kapp's books on the early settlements of Penn- 
sylvania and New York, and further including scientific books by 
eminent authorities, original explorations, discussions of the fauna 
and zoology of certain regions, novels and contributions to the poetry 
of America in both languages. 

One of the most active minds in political circles was Carl Nord- 
hoff, who came to the United States with his father in 1835 at the 
age of five, and in his later years represented the New York "Herald" 
as its Washington correspondent through numerous sessions of 
Congress. At the age of nineteen he enlisted in the United States 
Navy, visited many parts of the world during his term of three years' 
service, and after publishing some books about the sea, he worked for 
many years for Harper Brothers in a literary capacity and for ten 
years was employed in the editorial department of the New York 
"Evening Post." In the interval he published several books, notably 
his popular "Politics for Young Americans" and then acted as Wash- 
ington correspondent of the New York "Herald." His chief literary 
work was published in 1876 as the result of a six months tour of the 
South, "The Cotton States," in which he exposed the Republican 
misrule in the South. 

While Steinmetz, Mergenthaler and Berliner rank high among 
American inventors, Herman George Schefifauer, George Sylvester 
Viereck and Herman Hagedorn are among the foremost poets of the 
present day, to cite those writing in the English language, without 
taking account of a generation of German-writing poets of the dis- 
tinguished lineage of Conrad Kretz and Konrad Nies. Theodore 
Dreiser is one of the best-known novelists. Bret Harte had a strong 
German strain in his blood; Bayard Taylor had a German mother; 
the second name in Oliver Wendell Holmes indicates German rela- 
tionship; Joaquin Miller was of German extraction; Owen Wister 
owns to German antecedance, while one of America's greatest actors, 
Edwin Forrest, was the son of a German mother, and Mary Anderson 
is likewise credited with this racial admixture; Maude Powell, the 
famous violinist, had a German mother to whom she attributed her 
genius for music. 

92 



The greatest American historical painter is still Emanuel 
Leutze, whose "Washington Crossing the Delaware" and "Westward 
the Star of Empire" are among the most cherished art possessions of 
the American people. Save Remington, none has pictured the stirring 
life of the frontier as Charles Schreyvogel, notably in his painting, 
"My Bunky," while a host of others, like Albert Bierstadt, Carl Marr. 
Carl Wimar, Toby Rosenthal, Henry Hosier. Henry Twachtman, F. 
Dielman, Robert Blum and Gari Melchers, have permanently taken 
their place in the galler}^ of famous artists. A. Nahl was selected to 
perpetuate in historic paintings the frontier days of California, and 
his works may be seen in the capitol at Sacramento and in the 
Crocker Art Gallery of that city. 

Hiram Powers' name is one of the most familiar in the art history 
of America, but few are aware that the sculptor's instructor was 
Friedrich Eckstein, who went to Cincinnati in 1825 and opened an 
academy where Powers obtained the training that enabled him to 
create his masterwork, "The Greek Slave." In fact, one of the most 
enduring influences exercised by the German element has at all times 
been as teachers and instructors. 

American musical history would have had an entirely different 
aspect had it not been for the pioneer work of Theodore Thomas in 
carrying the cult of classic music into the remotest corners of the land 
under all kinds of physical discouragements, and had it not been for 
the numerous brilliant conductors who passed various periods in 
America to give it the best products of their genius, but particular 
credit is due to the host of individual Germans who scattered 
throughout the country and became part of town and village life as 
tireless instructors in music and art. Their influence was similar to 
that of the countless thousands of skilled chemists and mechanics 
who contributed so vastly to the development of our industries. 

The number of distinguished architects, sculptors and engineers is 
legion, though a few can be named here, famous" architects like 
Johannes Smithmeyer and Paul J. Pelz, the architects of the Con- 
gressional Library in Washington, and other public buildings; Alfred 
Ch. H. C. Vioch, Ernest Helffenstein, G. L. Heins, Otto Eidlitz and 
Carl Link. Famous sculptors: Karl Bitter, Joseph Sibbel, Charles 
Niehaus, Albert Weinmann, Albert Jaegers, F. W. Ruckstuhl, Otto 
Schweitzer and Prof. Bruno Schmitz, the designer of the Indian- 
apolis monum.ent. 

The great engineers and bridge builders of America are Johann 
August Roebling and Gustav Lindenthal. The former built the first 
suspension bridge over Niagara Falls, the Brooklyn bridge and Ohio 
River suspension bridge, and was the first manufacturer of bridge 
cables; Lindenthal constructed the new railway bridge across Hell- 
gate from Manhattan to Long Island, said to be the most perfect piece 
of bridge construction in the United States. 

93 



Famous among novelists, whose works were translated into all 
languages, was Charles Sealsfield (Karl Postel) who wrote equally 
well in both languages, writing in English "Tokeah, or The White 
Rose," and several other works. Friedrich Gerstaecker and Otto 
Ruppius lived many years in the United States and wrote novels of 
American life which were translated into English, French and 
Spanish. A female writer of considerable repute was the wife of 
Professor Robinson, known by her pen-name of "Talvj." She was 
born in Halle, Germany, and was a friend of Washington Irving, and, 
after publishing "Ossian not Genuine," a story of Captain John Smith 
and a work on the colonization of New England, wrote in English 
"Heloise, or The Unrevealed Secret," "The Exiles" and "Woodhill." 

Such names are selected at random out of hundreds, like that of 
Julius Reinhold Friedlander, of Berlin, who founded the first institute 
for the blind in Philadelphia in 1834, subsequently taken over by the 
State. He is called the father of the institutions for the blind in 
America. Dr. Konstantin Hering was the father of homeopathy in 
America. Friedrich List was one of the pioneers in the advocacy of 
a protective tariff, writing in 1827 "Outlines of a New System of 
Political Economy," which attracted wide attention. Philip SchafT 
soon after his arrival in 1844, attained fame in miscellaneous and 
religious literature, writing in English "The Principles of Protestant- 
ism," "America, Its Political, Social and Religious Character," 
"Lectures on the Civil War in America," etc. Demetrius Augustin 
Gallitizin, better known as Father Schmidt, founded the Catholic 
mission Loretto in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, in 1798, and his 
life is commemorated by a statue. Johann N. Neumann wrote "The 
Ferns of the Alleghanies" and the "Rhododendrons of the Pennsyl- 
vania and Virginia Mountains" — and so an almost endless array of 
German names troop in review before our minds to show the in- 
fluence of this element on our literature and our institutions. From 
no European source have we received a stronger accession of intel- 
lectual currents than from Germany, and whether the field be litera- 
ture, art, science or music, among their foremost figures are men with 
German names. They never belonged to the coolie class; they were 
never identified with the various movements for the suppression of 
rights, they have had fewer of their race figure in the crime records 
and more in the ranks of those who stood for liberty, education and 
progress than any others. Their literature would fill a library, and as 
Professor Scott Nearing has shown, the American people are a con- 
quering race because they are composed of the descendants of con- 
querors, the English and Germans. 

German-American Captains of Industry. — Kreischer, Balthasar, of 
Kreischerville, Staten Island, N. Y., born March 13, 1813. at Horn- 
bach, Bavaria. In December, 1835, occurred the great fire which 

94 



destroyed more than 600 buildings in the business part of New York 
City. Young Kreischer, who had learned brick manufacture, was 
struck with the opportunity that the disaster afforded to one of his 
trade. He arrived in New York June 4, 1836, and helped to rebuild 
the burned district. Discovered in New Jersey suitable species of clay 
for the making of fire brick ,which, up to this time had been imported 
from England. Kreischer began to fight against the British monopoly, 
and after discovering further valuable clay beds in Staten Island, 
drove the English fire brick from the American market. He soon 
established large works in New Jersey, Staten Island, Philadelphia 
and New York, and by a constant study of new improvements built 
up the industry on a lasting foundation. He was not only the dis- 
coverer of the valuable deposits of clay, but became the founder of 
the fire brick industry in the United States. 

Seligman, Joseph, founder and head of the banking house of J. W. 
Seligman & Co., New York, New Orleans and San Francisco, was born 
in Bayersdorf, Bavaria, September 22, 1819. At the. age of nineteen 
he came to America. In 1862 he and his brothers founded their bank- 
ing house, which soon acquired a high reputation. During the darkest 
hours of the rebellion, Mr. Seligman never swerved in his allegiance 
to the National Government. In 1863, when the National credit was 
in its most precarious condition, and when many even of the stoutest 
hearts, began to fear for the ability of the Federal authorities to suc- 
cessfully maintain the National integrity, Mr. Seligman introduced the 
United States bonds to the people of Germany. His attempt was 
crowned with the most gratifying success, and resulted in securing 
for the Federal cause not merely money, but also foreign sympathy, 
of which, it will be remembered, the nation had till then received but 
little. The Government gratefully recognized the Seligmans as gov- 
ernment bankers. 

Steinway, Henry Engelhard, of New York City, who, with his sons, 
became founder of Ainerica's greatest piano manufacturing industry 
and inventor, of the "grand piano," was born February 15, 1797, in 
Wolfshagen, Duchy of Brunswick, North Germany. The original spell- 
ing of the name was Steinweg. He came to this country on June 5, 
1850, with his family. "Steinway & Sons" were destined to become 
the leading piano manufacturers in this country, whose fame became 
world-wide, whose house was the rendezvous of the leading musicians 
and whose activities are felt to this day. (Encyclopaedia of Contem- 
porary Biography of New York, Vol. II, 1882.) 

Starin, Hon. John Henry, ex-member of Congress, whose name for 
many decades was so prominently identified with New York's railroad 
and steamboat transportation, was born in Sarrmionsville, N. Y. His 
paternal ancestor, Nicholas Starin (or Sterne, as' the name was then 
spelled), was a native of Germany, and came to America about the 
year 1720, and settled in the Mohawk Valley, upon the German Flats. 

95 



John Starin, his seventh son, fought in the Revolutionary War, being 
one of ten members of the Starin family who served in the American 
army under Washington. 

William Havemeyer, founder of America's great sugar refining in- 
dustry, came here from Germany in 1799, and settled in New York. 
He brought with him a knowledge of his business from Biickenburg, 
Germany, and started what was one of the earliest refineries in New- 
York, and has later developed into the Sugar Trust with which his 
descendants have been identified as leaders. (Makers of New York, 
Hamersly & Co, Philadelphia, 1895.) 

Bergh, Henry, founder of the first society in America for the pre- 
vention of cruelty to animals, was born in New York, 1823. He was of 
German descent, the family having come to America about 1740. 
Christian Bergh, father of the philanthropist, v/as a ship builder. 
(Makers of New York, Hamersly & Co., Philadelphia, 1895.) 

Gunther, Charles Godfred, mayor of New York in 1864, was born in 
that city in 1822. His father, Christian G. Gunther, a German by 
birth, was for more than half a century the leading fur merchant in the 
metropolis. (Makers of New York, Hamersly & Co., Philadelphia, 
1895.) 

Mayer, Charles Frederick, former president of the Baltimore & Ohio 
Railroad Co., was a son of Lewis Mayer, one of the first men to de- 
velop the anthracite coal regions of Pennsylvania. The father of Lewis 
Mayer was Christian Mayer, who emigrated from Germany and settled 
in Baltimore, where he became one of the leading merchants. (Makers 
of New York, Hamersly & Co., Philadelphia, 1895.) 

Ottendorfer, Oswald, was born at Zwittau and educated at Vienna. 
He came to New York in 1850, having been involved in the revolu- 
tionary outbreak in Vienna. He became eminent as the editor and 
proprietor of the "New Yorker Staats-Zeitung." (Makers of New 
York, Hamersly & Co., Philadelphia, 1895.) 

Ziegler, William, born of German parents, in Beaver County, Pa., in 
1843, was the founder of the baking powder industry in this country, in 
which he accumulated a fortune. (Makers of New York; Hamersly & 
Co., Philadelphia, 1895.) 

Windmueller, Louis, a prominent merchant and reformer of New 
York, was born in Westphalia, emigrating to this country in 1853. He 
was one of the founders of the Reform Club and of many of the 
leading banking institutions in the city. 

Eberhard Faber, founder of the American lead pencil industry, born 
near Nuremberg in 1820; Friedrich Meyerhaeuser, the American lum- 
ber king, born 1834 in Hessia; Klaus Spreckels, founder of the Ameri- 
can beet sugar industry, in Hanover in 1828; G. Martin Brill, largest 
car manufacturer, born February, in Cassel. 

John Valentin Steger, for whom a well-known piano is named, came 
to the United States from Germany at the age of 17 in the steerage 

96 



and died in Chicago, June 14, 1916, aged 62, founder of the town of 
Steger and president of the J. V. Steger & Sons Mfg. Co., and of the 
Singer Piano Mfg. Co., the Reed & Sons Mfg. Co., the Thompson 
Piano Mfg. Co., and of the Bank of Steger; also vice-president of the 
Planner Land & Lumber Co. In his will he left a large sum for a 
hospital and library for his employees. 

From the earliest period of New York's financial district, Germans 
and men of German blood have occupied a predominant part in the 
financial life of this country, firstly because fundamental banking 
principles are taught in Germany as nowhere else, and secondly for 
the reason that subjects, such as foreign, exchange, necessitate such 
deep technical knowledge that it would appear only German minds 
can thoroughly grasp them. It is an actual fact that even today, the 
foreign exchange business of Wall Street, even that part of the 
business handled and controlled by Morgan & Company and the 
National City Bank, is in the hands of Germans. 

Among the greatest of Wall Street operators of the end of the last 
century, the days of Jay Gould, Russell Sage, Addison Cammack, etc., 
Germans predominated and were triumphant victors in most of the 
great Wall Street speculative battles. Henry Villard, who came to 
this country from Germany, was the chief center of American railroad 
finance in the historic period from 1879 to 1884. He it was who cap- 
tured the Northern Pacific Railroad from the Wall Street banking 
groups. 

Another figure of this time was the great bear operator, probably 
the most powerful and successful bear operator that Wall Street has 
ever seen, Charles Frederick WoerishofTer, who died in 1886. He was 
born in Gelnshausen, Germany, and coming to this country, founded 
the firm of Woerishoffer & Company. He was connected with the 
famous campaigns in Wall Street conducted by James R. Keene, Jay 
Gould, Russell Sage, Addison Cammack, etc., for the control of the 
Kansas Pacific Railroad in 1879. Henry Clews, the English stock- 
brojcer, says of him in his reminiscences of Wall Street: -"Woeris- 
hoffer had the German idea of fighting in the open, as against the 
secret operations of Commodore Vanderbilt and the others. He lost 
some battles but won most of those in which he engaged and made 
millions out of the conflicts." 

Joseph Drexel came to this country from Germany in 1787. He is 
the real founder of the house of Morgan & Company. Drexel founded 
the banking house of Drexel and Company in Philadelphia and Drexel, 
Morgan & Company, New York. He built up a successful banking 
business, in which his sons became interested, and at his death they 
inherited his fortune. 

August Belmont, the elder, was born in Alzey, Prussia, in 1816, and 
died in 1890, leaving his son to manage the banking house he founded. 

97 



He had been a clerk in the Rothschild banking house in Frankfort- 
on-the-Main, Germany, and when he came to this country, he was the 
American representative of that world historic firm, which position 
his son of the same name occupies today. The elder Belmont was the 
founder of the Manhattan Club in New York. 

Henry Bischoff, founder of the banking house of Bischoff & Com- 
pany, was born in Baden, Germany. Lazarus Hallgarten, of Mayence, 
Germany, was the founder of the banking house of Hallgarten & Com- 
pany. Isaac Ickelheimer, a native of Frankfort, Germany, was the 
founder of the banking firm of Heidelbach, Ickelheimer & Company. 
Frederick Kuehne, who was born in Magdeburg, Germany, established 
the banking house of Knauth, Nachod & Kuehne. Jacob Schifif, one 
of the foremost bankers of Wall Street at the present time, was also 
born in Frankfort. He is the head of Kuhn, Loeb and Company. 
Ernst Thalmann, who died recently, was one of the founders of 
Ladenburg, Thalmann & Company. He was also of German birth. 
James Speyer, head of Speyer & Company, is a member of the old 
Frankfort family of that name, and obtained his financial education 
in Germany. In fact, the majority of banking houses in Wall Street 
as they exist today were founded by Germans. 

Adolphus Busch, the great brewer and philanthropist, was born at 
Mayence-on-the-Rhine, July 10, 1839; education at gymnasium, May- 
ence, and academy, Darmstadt, and high school, Brussels. Came to 
United States, 1857. Served in the Union army under Gen. Lyon and 
became associated with his father-in-law, E. Anheuser, in the Anheuser 
Brewing Co., and later became president of the famous Anheuser- 
Busch Brewing Assn. of St. Louis, largest brewing concern in the 
world. At the time of his death was president of five large concerns, 
including a local bank and Diesel Engine Co.. and director St. Louis 
Union Trust Co., Third National Bank, Kinloch Telephone Co., Equit- 
able Surety Co., and several other strong organizations. Mr. Busch 
was a high type of the self-made German-American. He gave a large 
sum (twice) to the Harvard German Museum, the Germanistic Society 
of Columbia University, and to other public institutions of science 
and learning, and his death, Oct. 10, 1913, was universally regretted. 

John D. Rockefeller and John Wanamaker are both descendants of 
German imigrants. The forefather of the Standard Oil King, Johann 
Peter Roggenfelder, came over in 1735 from Bonnefeld, Rhennish 
Prussia, and is buried at Larrison Corners, N. J., while Mr. Wanna- 
maker, former Postmaster General and the father of the department 
store, is descended from a Pennsylvania German family named 
Wannenmacher. 

The German American Vote. — The following table shows the vote 
of the Germans, Austrians and Hungarians (according to the census 
of 1910) in ten states where their vote is above 40,000, the figures being 

98 



compounded of those naturalized and those having applied for their 
first papers: 





Germans 


Austrians 


Hungarians 


Total 


New York 


163,881 . 


41,466 


16,123 


221,470 


Illinois 


124,430 


30,461 


5,374 


160,265 


Wisconsin 


92,655 


11,385 


1,620 


105,660 


Ohio 


68,576 


12,342 


8,757 


89,675 


Michigan 


52,510 


4,113 


i,ou 


57,634 


Minnesota 


46,281 


9,515 


1,022 


56,718 


New Jersey 


44,899 


7,403 


4,448 


56,750 


Iowa 


39,348 


4,802 


249 


44,399 


Missouri 


35,267 


4,115 


1,835 


41,217 


California 


34,911 


5,135 


1,065 


41,111 



These figures are but remotely representative of what is called 
"the German vote" or the vote of the Austro-Hungarians, as no 
account is here taken of the first generation born in the United 
States, the sons of these naturalized Americans, nor of their grandsons. 

With the first generation of German Americans, the total vote in 
1916 of this element in New York, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, Missouri, 
Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Indiana, New Jersey, California, Nebraska, 
Kansas and the two Dakotas amount to 1,860,500. 

New England, which was the center of anti-German sentiment as it 
is the center of puritanism and Anglo-American hyphenation, 
contains the smallest number of Germans and the largest number of 
aliens of any section in the United States; in other words, the lowest 
percentage of naturalized citizens among the foreign-born white men 
of the age of 21 and over — 40.7 per cent. The highest proportion of 
naturalized foreign-born above 21 years was in the West North 
Central division, that is Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, 
South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas, where the Teutonic element is 
largely settled. Table 25 of the U. S. Census Bulletin on Population 
(1910) "Voting Age, Military Age, and Naturalization," shows that 
the German aliens 21 years and over, all told, number only 127,103, 
and the Germans stand at the foot of the list of twenty-nine (alien 
immigrants) or 9.9 per cent., the highest being 83 per cent. The 
French aliens in the United States numbered 27.8 per cent., the Scotch 
21.8, and the English 19.6. In other words, only 9.9 in every hundred 
of Germans could not be forced to go to war, but nearly 28 out of 
every hundred Frenchmen, 21.5 out of every hundred Scotchmen, 
and more than 19 out of every hundred Englishmen were immune 
from military duty in the United States, also from the payment of 
taxes. 

There are more German-born persons in the United States of the 
age of 21 and over than there are persons of any other foreign 
nationality. Of the total number of foreign-born (6,646,817), Germany 

99 



is represented by 1,278,667, of whom 69.5 per cent, had been naturalized 
in 1910. Russia comes next, with 737,120, of whom only 26.1 per cent, 
were naturalized. There were 437,152 Englishmen of voting age, 
59.4 of whom were naturalized, while only 49.6 per cent, out of a 
total of 59,661 Frenchmen of voting age were entitled to vote. 



The following table shows the States containing the largest 


number 


of Germans of voting age 


of all foreign-born 


citizens: 






By Sections: — 












Germans 


Austrians 


Hungarians 


East North Central 
West " 


461,038 
228,262 


166,037 
63,686 




90,577 


South Atlantic 


32,143 


10,961 




6,007 


East South Central 


15,154 


1,719 






Pacific 


73,302 


23,500 







By States:— 








_ 




Germans 


Austrians 


Hungarians 


New Jersey 


60,380 


26,082 




22,773 


Ohio 


87,013 


38,400 




47,852 


Indiana 


32,123 


7,356 




9,383 . 


Illinois 


159,112 


81,883 




20,391 


Wisconsin 


117,661 


20,700 




6,014 


Iowa 


52,393 


8,580 






Missouri 


47,038 


8,819 




5,834 


South Dakota 


11,964 


3,099 






Nebraska 


31,008 


12,184 






Kansas 


18,910 


6,178 






Maryland 


17,370 


3,397 




967 


Colorado 


9,558 


8,221 






Oregon 


10,786 


3,622 






California 


44,712 


11,125 







In the following States the German-born citizens of voting age con- 
stitute the second largest number of foreign-born citizens: 



Michigan 

Minnesota 

Texas 



Germans Austrians Hungarians 

65,129 17,698 6,937 

57,789 22,261 — 

24,039 9,767 



In Michigan the Germans and Austrians together outnumbered the 
Canadians 3,588. In Minnesota the Swedes came first, with a total of 
67,003, and in Texas the Germans were outnumbered only by Mexicans. 

The German-born of voting age in New York State are outnumbered 
by Russians and Italians, but as 68.2 per cent, of the 215,310 are 
citizens, only 17.5 per cent, of the Italians and only 24.4 of the Russians 
had acquired the franchise in 1910, the Germans outclass them numer- 



100 



ically as voters. They are third also in Washington with a total of 
17,804, next after the Canadians with 20,395 and the Swedes with 
19,727. Of the Germans, however, 66.9 per cent, were naturalized while 
only 55.1 per cent, of the Canadians had their franchise, giving the 
Germans the advantage when the votes are counted. 

Germans Austrians Hungarians 
New York 215,310 105,889 39,577 
Washington 19,727 9,675 

In Pennsylvania Germans of voting age are outnumbered by Aus- 
trians, Russians and Italians in the order named; but only 12.4 per 
cent, of the Austrians, 21.9 per cent, of the Russians and 13.7 per cent, 
of the Italians had the franchise, whereas 66.5 of the Germans were 
citizens. 

In North Dakota the Norwegians, Russians and Canadians outnum- 
bered the Germans in the order named, and here all had become 
citizens in fairly relative proportion, as also in Montana, where the 
Germans of voting age were outnumbered by the Canadians, Irish 
and Austrians. 

Germans Austrians Hungarians 
Pennsylvania 95,539 145,528 68,522 
North Dakota 9,160 2,565 1,096 
Montana 5,419 6,067 

In New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut 
the total number of German-born voters was only 33,011, Austrians 
29,686 and Hungarians d.Zll , and these were principally in Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut. Maine had none. 

The following table shows the number of Germans, Austrians and 
Hungarians who were citizens in 1910, including those who had taken 
out their first papers: 

Germans 1,017,037 

Austrians 208,550 

Hungarians (i2,'h()(i 



Total 1,287,953 

In addition, the citizenship of a total of 240,953 Germans, Austrians 

and Hungarians had not been reported. The following shows the 

number of Irish, Swedes, Swiss and Hollanders of voting age in 1910, 

including those who had applied for their first citizenship papers: 

Irish 439,973 

Swedes 259,305 

Hollanders 40,332 

Swiss 49,364 



Total 788,974 

101 



7,380 


Arizona 


852 


1,509 


Nevada 


922 


1,255 


Delaware 


903 


647 


District of Columbia 


1,952 


2,203 


Virginia 


1,547 


2,739 


North Carolina 


365 


4,071 


South Carolina 


570 


2,133 


Georgia 


1,174 


1,091 


West Virginia 


2,137 


804 


Florida 


925 



Other States in which German-born naturalized males of 21 or over 
lead all other foreign-born are: 
Kentucky 
Tennessee 
Alabama 
Mississippi 
Arkansas 
Louisiana 
Oklahoma 
Idaho 
Wyoming 
New Mexico 

In West Virginia the total number of Italians was 11,561 against 
only 3,392 Germans, but only 748 Italians had become citizens against 
2,137 Germans; and in Arizona there were 2,196 English as compared 
with 1,324 Germans, but 825 Germans had become citizens as com- 
pared with 832 English-born. 

Of the 234,285 Russians in New York only 92,269 had become 
naturalized and taken out their first papers. In Minnesota'were 52,133 
Swedish voters, in Illinois 43,618, in Iowa 10,636, in Wisconsin 11,532, 
in Nebraska 10,000, in Washington 13,393, and in California 11,076. 

The German Element in American Life. — The following commentary 
of Carl Schurz on the influence of the Germans in America is worthy 
of note: 

"Friedrich Kapp, in his 'History of the Germans in the State of New 
York,' says: 'In the battle waged to subdue the new world, the Latins 
supplied officers without an army, the English an army with 
officers, and the Germans an army without officers.' This is signally 
true as regards the Germans. They emigrated to America and settled 
here as squatters without eminent official leadership. They became 
parts of already existing communities, in which a majority population 
of other nationality played a dominant role. Unlike 'the army with 
officers,' they possessed no official writers of history to record their 
deeds and sayings in regular reports. They had lost their political 
connection with their native land, and whatever interest they inspired 
at home was of a personal or family nature. Besides this, they were 
strongly isolated from communion with the predominating nationality 
by the difference in language and frequently were forced into the 
imfavorable position of an alien element. These various circumstances 
combined to accord them a rather superficial, stepmotherly treatment 
in the history of the American people, as written by the dominant 
nationality." — From the introduction to Kapp's "Die Deutschen im 
Staate New York." 

While Prof. Nearing, Douglas Campbell, Dr. Griffis and others have 
shown that the Americans are not an English people, the latter — 

102 



including Scotch and Welsh — constituting only 30 per cent, of the 
American people, the advantage as historians, 'which the English- 
speaking element enjoyed from the beginning of our life as a nation, 
prompted them to assume the name of "Americans" and to regard 
the people of all other races and their descendants as usurping an 
unwarranted right in calling themselves Americans, so that today an 
American with a German name, as the war has shown, is somehow 
in a tolerated class distinct from his Anglo-American neighbors. 

"Yet the first distinctive American frontier was not created alone 
by the movement of population westward from the older settlements; 
like every successive frontier in our history it became the Mecca of 
emigrants from British and Continental lands. Before 1700 exiled 
Huguenots and refugees from the (German) Palatinate began to seek 
the new world, and during the eighteenth century men of non-English 
stock poured by thousands into the up-country of Pennsylvania and 
of the South. In 1700 the foreign population of the- colonies was 
slight; in 1775 it is estimated that 225,000 Germans and 385,000 Scotch- 
Irish, together nearly one-fifth of the entire population, lived within 
the provinces that won independence." — "The Beginning of the Ameri- 
can People," by Prof. Carl L. Becker, University of Kansas; Houghton 
Mifflin & Co., 1915; p. 177. 

Elson, in his "History of the United States," p. 198, says that in New 
England and the South the people were almost wholly of English 
stock, though New England was of more purely English stock than 
was the South, with a sprinkling of Scotch-Irish and other nationali- 
ties, and especially in the South, of French Huguenots and Germans. 
"In the middle colonies less than half the population was English; 
the Dutch of New York, the Germans of Pennsylvania, the Swedes 
of Delaware and the Irish of all these colonies, together with small 
numbers of other nationalities, made up more than half the popula- 
tion." He gives the total population of the colonies in 1760 at 
approximately 1,600,000. 

Pennsylvania is sometimes called "The American German's Holy 
Land." Let us see why. Today, as the tourist visits Heidelburg on 
the Neckar, sails down the Rhine from Spires or Mannheim to Cologne, 
he sees many ivy-mantled ruins, which show how terribly Louis XIV of 
France desolated this region during his ferocious wars. Angry at 
the Germans and Dutch for sheltering his hunted Huguenots, he 
invaded the Rhine Palatinate, which became for a whole generation 
the scene of French fire, pillage, rapine and slaughter. Added to 
these troubles of war and politics, were those of religious persecutions; 
for, according as the prince electors were Protestants or Catholics, 
so the 'people were expected to change as suited their rulers, who 
compelled their subjects to be of the same faith. Tired of their long- 
endured miseries, the Palatine Germans, early in the eighteenth cen- 
tury, fled to England. Under the protection and kindly care of the 

103 



British government, they were aided to come to America. About 
5,000 settled in the Hudson, Mohawk and Schoharie valleys in New 
York, and over 25,000 in Pennsylvania, chiefly in the Schuylkill and 
Swatara region between Bethlehem and Harrisburg. Later came 
Germans from other parts of the Fatherland, making Colonists rich 
in the sturdy virtues of the Teutonic race. 

Though poor, these Germans were very intelligent, holding on to 
their Bibles and having plenty of schools and schoolmasters. In the 
little Mennonite meeting house at Germantown, on the 18th of Febru- 
ary, 1688, they declared against the unlawfulness of holding their 
fellowmen in bondage, and raised the first ecclesiastical protest 
against slavery in America. In Penn's Colony also the first book 
written and published in America against slavery was by one of these 
German Christians. The Penn Germans also published the first Bible 
in any European tongue ever printed in America. It was they who 
first called Washington "the father of his country." In their dialect, 
still surviving in some places, made up of old German and modern 
expressions, some pretty poems and charming stories have been writ- 
ten. Tenacious in holding their lands, thorough in method, appreci- 
ative of most of what is truest and best in our nation's life, but not 
easily led away by mere novelties and justly distrustful of what is 
false and unjust, even though called "American," the Germans have, 
furnished in our national composite an element of conservatism, that 
bodes well for the future of the republic. . . . Here worked and lived 
the first American astronomer, Rittenhouse, and here (Pennsylvania) 
originated many first things which have so powerfully influenced the 
nation at large. . . . Here lived Daniel Pastorius, then the most 
learned man in America. ("The Romance of American Colonization," 
by Dr. William Elliot Griffis.) 

The disposition of the New England school of historians, with 
some distinguished exceptions, to glorify everything of Puritan origin 
and belittle everything of non-English origin in American life, is 
strongly manifest in their writings about the early Palatine immigra- 
tion. They were merely hewers of wood and drawers of water, or 
coolies. But the evidence of Franklin, Washington and Jefferson 
is to the contrary, and their history in New York, Pennsylvania, 
Virginia and North and South Carolina puts the New England 
historians to shame. With their disparaging comments may be con- 
trasted the words in which Macaulay describes the same people: 

Honest, laborious men, who had once been thriving burghers 

of Mannheim and Heidelberg, or who had cultivated the wine on 

the banks of the Neckar and the Rhine. Their ingenuity and 

their diligence could not fail to enrich any land which should 

afford them an asylum. 

Sanford H. Cobb says: "The story of the Palatines challenges our 

sympathy, admiration and reverence, and is as well worth telling as 

that of any other colonial immigration. We may concede that their 

104 



influence on the future development of the country and Its institutions 
was not equal to the formative power exerted by some other con- 
tingents. Certainly, they have not left so many broad and deep marks 
upon our history as have the Puritans of New England, and yet 
their story is not without definite and permanent monuments of 
beneficence toward American life and institutions. At least one 
among the very greatest of the safeguards of American liberty — the 
Freedom of the Press — is distinctly traceable to the resolute boldness 
of a Palatine." ("The Story of the Palatines," Putnam's Sons, 1897, 
p. 5 Introduction.) 

And very emphatic are the words of Judge Benton in his "History 
of Herkimer County": 

The particulars of the immigration of the Palatines are worthy 
of extended notice. The events which produced the movement 
in the heart of an old and polished European nation to seek 
a refuge and a home on the western continent, are quite as legiti- 
mate a subject of American history as the oft-repeated relation 
of the experience of the Pilgrim Fathers. 
Germans were among the first immigrants in the South along with 
the English, and many a proud Virginian has German blood in his 
veins. President Wilson's second wife is a Boiling. The first attempts 
to colonize Virginia were discouraging failures. Of the first 105 
bachelor colonists sent out from England in 1606, half called them- 
selves "gentlemen," young men without a trade and with no practical 
experience as colonists. The others were laborers, tradesmen and 
mechanics, and two singers and a chaplain. Among the leaders Capt. 
John Smith was the most noted as he was the most able. The James- 
town colony was reduced to forty men when Captain Newport on his 
return from England brought additional numbers of colonists, and 
the "Phoenix" later arrived with seventy more settlers and the 
languishing colony was still later reinforced by seventy immigrants, 
among whom were two women. The marriage of John Laydon and 
Ann Burras was the occasion of the first wedding in Virginia. 

"Better far than a batch of the average immigrants," writes Dr. 
Grifiis,"was the reinforcements of some German and Polish mechanics 
brought over to manufacture glass. These Germans were the first 
of a great company that have contributed powerfully to build up the 
industry and commerce of Virginia — the mother of states and states- 
men! There still stands on the east side of Timber Neck Bay, on 
the north side of the York River, a stone chimney with a mighty 
fireplace nearly eight feed wide, built by these Germans." 

American's great historian, George Bancroft, in his introduction to 
Kapp's "Life of Steuben," writes: "The Americans of that day, who 
were of German birth or descent, formed a large part of the popula- 
tion of the United States; they cannot well be reckoned at less than 
a twelfth of the whole, and perhaps formed even a larger proportion 
of the insurgent people. At the commencement of the Revolution we 

105 



hear little of them, not from their want of zeal in the good cause, but 
from their modesty. They kept themselves purposely in the back- 
ground, leaving it to those of English origin to discuss the violations 
of English liberties and to decide whether the time for giving battle 
had come. But when the resolution was taken, no part of the country 
was more determined in its patriotism than the German counties of 
Pennsylvania and Virginia. Neither they nor their descendants have 
laid claim to all the praise that was their due." 

In 1734 a number of German Lutheran communities were flourish- 
ing in Northern Virginia, and in a work dealing with Virginia con- 
ditions, which appeared in London in 1724, Governor Spotswood is 
mentioned as having founded the town of Germania, named for the 
Germans whom Queen Anne had sent over, but who abandoned that 
region, it seems, on account of religious intolerance. The same work 
mentions a colony of Germans from the Palatinate who had been pre- 
sented with a large section of land and who were prosperous, happy 
and exceedingly hospitable. Many of their descendants attained to 
fame and fortune, as B. William Wirt, remembered as one of the most 
distinguished jurists in America, and Karl Minnigerode, for many 
years rector of St. Paul's Church in Richmond, among whose parish- 
oners was Jefiferson Davis. 

Many Germans immigrated to the Carolinas from Germany as well 
as Pennsylvania, before the Revolution. A large number came from 
Pennsylvania in 1745, and in 1751 the Mennonites bought 900,000 acres 
from the English government in North Carolina and founded numer- 
ous colonies which still survive. One colony on the Yadkin, known 
as the Buffalo Creek Colony, at the time sent abroad $384 for the 
purchase of German books. After 1840 the interrupted flow of Ger- 
man immigration was resumed. 

When the German immigration into South Carolina began is a 
matter of dispute, but when a colony of immigrants from Salzburg 
reached Charleston in 1743, they found there German settlers by whom 
they were heartily welcomed. As early as 1674 many Lutherans, to 
escape the oppression of English rule in New York, settled along the 
Ashley, near the future site of Charleston. 

It is probable from printed evidence that the first German in South 
Carolina was Rev. Peter Fabian, who accompanied an expedition sent 
by the English Carolina Company to that colony in 1663. 

In 1732, under the leadership of John Peter Purry, 170 German- 
Swiss founded Purrysburg on the Savannah River, and were followed 
in a year or two by 200 more. Orangeburg was founded about the 
same time by Germans from Switzerland and the Palatinate. Like- 
wise Lexington was founded by Germans, and in 1742 Germans 
founded a settlement on the island of St. Simons, south of Savannah. 
In 1763 two shiploads of German immigrants arrived at Charleston 
from London. 

106 



Before the Revolution the Gospel was preached in sixteen German 
churches in the colony, and at the outbreak of the Revolution the 
German Fusiliers was the name given to an organization of German 
and German-Swiss volunteers which still exists. As early as 1766 a 
German Society was founded in Charleston and numbered upward 
of 100 members at the beginning of the Revolution. It gave 2,000 
pounds to the patriotic cause, and after the conclusion of peace erected 
its own school, at which annually twenty children of the poor were 
taught free of charge. Dr. Griffis speaks of the ship "Phoenix," from 
New York, "which brought Germans, who built Jamestown on the 
Stone River." 

Many of the Palatine Germans and Swiss had already settled in the 
Carolinas, he continues; now into Georgia came Germans from farther 
East, besides many of the Moravians. In the Austrian Salzburg, 
prelatical bigotry had become unbearable to the Lutherans. Thirty 
thousand of these Bible-reading Christians had fled into Holland and 
England. Being invited to settle in Georgia, they took the oath of 
allegiance to the British King and crossed the Atlantic Ocean. 

In March, 1734, the ship "Purisburg," having on board 87 Salzburgers 
with their ministers, arrived in the colony. Warmly welcomed, they 
founded the town of Ebenezer. The next year more of these sober, 
industrious and strongly religious people of Germany came over. The 
Moravians, who followed quickly began missionary work among the 
Indians. After them again followed German Lutherans, Moravians, 
English immigrants, Scotch-Irish, Quaker, Mennonites and others. 
"Thus in Georgia, as in the Carolinas and Virginia, there was formed 
a miniature New Europe, having a varied population, with many 
sterling qualities." 

The first whites to settle within the territory comprising the present 
State of Ohio were the German Moravians who founded the towns 
of Schoenbrunn, Gnadenhiitten, Lichtenau and Salem. David Zeis- 
berger on May 3, 1772, with a number of converted Indians, founded 
the first Christian community in Ohio. Mrs. Johann George Jungmann 
was the first white married woman. She and her husband came from 
Bethlehem, Pa. At Schoenbrunn and Gnadenhiitten, Zeisberger wrote 
a spelling book and reader in the Delaware language which was printed 
in Philadelphia. 

In Gnadenhiitten was born July 4, 1773, the first white child in Ohio, 
John Ludwig Roth; the second child was Johanna Maria Heckewelder, 
April 16, 1781, at Schoenbrunn, and the third was Christian David 
Seusemann, at Salem, May 30, 1781. The Communities, largely com- 
posed of baptized Indians, in 1775 numbered 414 persons, and their 
record of industry and peaceful development is preserved in Zeis- 
berger's diary, now in the archives of the Historical and Philosophical 
Society of Ohio at Cincinnati. 

The peaceful settlements excited the jealousy of powerful interests, 

107 



and the British Commissioners, McKee and Elliot, and the renegade, 
Simon Girty, reported to the commander at Detroit that Zeisbergcr 
and his companions were xA.merican spies. The German settlers and 
their Indian converts were carried to Sandusky in 1781, where they 
suffered great privations until permitted, after winter had come, to 
send back 150 of their Indian wards — all of whom spoke the German 
language — to gather what of their planting remained in the fields. But 
a number of lawless American bordermen under Col. David William- 
son, acting on a false report that the peaceful Indians had been con- 
cerned in a raid, surprised the men in the fields and after disarming 
them by a trick, murdered men, women and children in cold blood. 
The details, as related by EickhofT ("In der Neuen Heimath." Steiger, 
New York, 1885, and by Col. Roosevelt in "The Winning of the West") 
are among the most ghastly on record and make the blood run cold. 
Some of these slain had German fathers and all were peaceful, indus- 
trious and well-behaved natives who had learned to sing Christian 
hymns and German songs in their humble meeting houses. 

Independent of these communities, the first settlement of Ohio at 
Marietta was the work of New Englanders, in April, 1788; but the 
second, that of Columbia, was under the direction of a German Revo- 
lutionary officer. Major Benjamin Steitz, the name being later changed 
by his descendants to Stites. 

Space is lacking for fuller details regarding the great share of the 
Germans in settling the Middle West and West. German names pre- 
dominate in the history of early border warfare in the fights with the 
French and the Indians; the Germans were among the most con- 
spicuous of the pioneers, as they continued to be for generations in 
settling the Far West and Northwest, the great number of Indian 
massacres culminating in that of New Ulm in 1862, in which German 
settlers again formed the outposts of American civilization. 

One thing is notable in the annals of our early history, the striking 
fact that the frontier settlements in Pennsylvania and the West and 
also the Northwest teemed with Germans, and that every Indian 
massacre and every border fight with the French, before the Revolu- 
tion as well as after, brings into prominence German names. In the 
defense of the borders against Indians and French, forts were built 
by the German settlers above Harrisburg, at the forks of the Schuylkill, 
on the Lehigh and on the Upper Delaware. They bore the brunt of 
the Tulpehocken massacre in 1755, just after Braddock's defeat; the 
barbarities perpetrated in Northampton county in 1756, and the attack 
on the settlements near Reading in 1763. Against these forays the 
Germans under Schneider and Hiester made stout resistance. As 
early as 1711 a German battalion, mainly natives of the Palatinate, was 
part of the force, a thousand strong, which was to take part in the 
expedition against Quebec. 



Berks, Bucks, Lancaster, York and Northampton were then the 
Pennsylvania frontier counties, and from them came the men who 
filled the German regiments and battalions in the Revolutionary War. 
In the South, Law's Mississippi scheme brought more than 17,000 
Germans from the Palatinate, who made settlements throughout what 
was then the French colony. Theirs was a life of hardship and con- 
stant battle with the Indians. 

In 1773 Frankfort and Louisville, Kentucky, were settled by Ger- 
mans, the former by immigrants from North Carolina, and led to 
"Lord Dinsmore's war" in which they fought the Indians and gained 
a foothold. 

In 1777 Col. Shepherd (Schaefer), a Pennsylvania German, suc- 
cessfully defended Wheeling from a large Indian force. In the opera- 
tions under Gen. Irvine, to avenge the massacre of the Moravian 
settlers in Ohio, his adjutant. Col. Rose, was a German, Baron Gus- 
tave von Rosenthal. 

At the outbreak of the Old French War (1756-1763), the British 
government, under an act of Parliament, organized the Royal American 
regiment for service in the Colonies. It was to consist of four bat- 
talions of one thousand men each. Fifty of the officers were to be 
foreign Protestants, while the enlisted men were to be raised prin- 
cipally from among the German settlers in America. The immediate 
commander, General Bouquet, was a Swiss by birth, an English officer 
by adoption, and a Pennsylvanian by naturalization. This last dis- 
tinction was conferred on him as a reward for his services in his 
campaign in the western part of Pennsylvania, where he and his Ger- 
mans atoned for the injuries that resulted from Braddock's defeat in 
the same border region. 

The German settlers were ardent American patriots before and dur- 
ing the Revolution. In 1775, says Rosengarten, the vestries of the 
German Lutheran and Reformed churches at Philadelphia sent a 
pamphlet of forty pages to the Germans of New York and North 
Carolina, stating that the Germans in the near and remote parts of 
Pennsylvania have distinguished themselves by forming not only a 
militia, but a select corps of sharp shooters, ready to march wherever 
they are required, while those who cannot do military service are 
willing to contribute according to their ability. They urged the Ger- 
mans of other colonies to give their sympathy to the common cause, 
to carry out the measures taken by Congress, and to rise in arms 
against the oppression and despotism of the English Government. 
The volunteers in Pennsylvania were called "Associators" and the 
Germans among them had their headquarters at the Lutheran school- 
house in Philadelphia. In 1750 the German settlers in Pennsylvania 
were estimated at nearly 100,000 out of a total population of 270,000, 
and in 1790 at 144,600. 

The Springfield (Mass.) "Republican," although an outspoken pro- 

109 



British paper, since the outbreak of the war paid deserved tribute to 
the share of the German settlers in the early history of the Republic, 
rebuking the spirit of envy and detraction evinced in certain quarters, 
by saying that those who hold these belittling views can have no 
knowledge of the history of the Palatines who settled the Mohawk 
Valley. Anyone having a cursory acquaintance with the elementary 
text books of American history, the paper thinks, must recall the 
massacre of Wyoming and the Cherry Valley. Neither in New York, 
nor in Pennsylvania nor in the South did the Germans evade the 
dangers and hardships of the wilderness. It is not generally known 
how large a share they had in the settling of the West. They poured 
into Ohio from the Mohawk Valley as well as from Pennsylvania. On 
the dark and bloody ground of Kentucky they vied with Daniel Boone 
in fighting the Indians — Steiner and the German Pole, Sandusky, 
preceded Boone in Kentucky. One of the most famous among the 
pioneers was the "tall Dutchman", George Yeager (Jaeger), who was 
killed by Indians in 1775, continues the "Republican." In the valleys 
of Virginia there were more German pioneers than any other nation- 
ality. Along the whole border line from Maine to Georgia they 
occupied the most advanced positions in the enemy's territory, and 
their large families included more younger sons who went forth to 
look for new lands than of all others. A Kentucky observer declared 
at the close of the eighteenth century that of every twelve families, 
nine Germans, seven Scotchmen and four Irishmen succeeded when 
all others failed. 

Michael Fink and his companions were the first to descend the 
Mississippi on a trading expedition to New Orleans, where the officials 
in 1782 had never heard of their starting point, Pittsburg. Germans 
again — Rosenvelt, Becker and Heinrich — were the first to descend the 
Ohio in a steamboat in 1811. (Rosengarten). 

"In our Colonial Period almost the entire western border of our 
country was occupied by Germans," writes Prof. Burgess. "It fell to 
them, therefore, to defend, in first instance, the colonists from the 
attack of the French and the Indians. They formed what was known 
in those times as the Regiment of Royal Americans, a brigade rather 
than a regiment, numbering some 4,000 men, and the bands led by 
Nicholas Herkimer and Conrad Weiser." 

Germany and England During the Civil War. — The attitude of Eng- 
land during the Civil W^ar contrasted strangely with that of the Ger- 
man States, and this attitude is rather clearly shown by the "Invest- 
ment Weekly," of New York, for June 21, 1917, though not intended as 
a reproach to England. In the course of an article, headed "Bond 
Market of the Civil War," the "Investment Weekly" says: 

Another difference is that the United States until recently 
had been the greatest neutral nation in the world, whereas then 
Great Britain was the greatest neutral nation. Still a third 

110 



difference is that whereas Great Britain was able to borrow 
freely from us even before we entered the war, our government 
during the Civil War was unable to obtain any help from Great 
Britain. In March, 1863, an attempt was made to negotiate a 
loan of $10,000,000 there, but the negotiations utterly failed. 
The significance of this paragraph will appear from reflection on the 
state of distress prevailing in 1863, a period when the outlook for the 
success of the Union was veiled in gloom, and many of the most 
stout-hearted trembled for the outcome. England was sending fully- 
equipped and English-manned warships over to aid the Confederacy; 
the "Alabama" and the "Florida" were sinking our ships and sweeping 
American commerce from the seas. Justin McCarthy, in "The Cruise 
of the 'Alabama' " ("A History of Our Own Times," II, Chap. XLIV), 
says: 

The "Alabama" had got to sea; her cruise of nearly two years 

began. She went upon her destroying course with the cheers 

of English sympathizers and the rapturous tirades of English 

newspapers glorifying her. Every misfortune that befell an 

American merchantman was received in this country with a 

roar of delight. 

At that time England was on the eve of entering the war on the 

side of the South, and only the news of General Grant's decisive 

victory at Vicksburg and Lee's defeat at Gettysburg brought the 

House of Commons to a more sober reflection. 

McCarthy shows that a motion for the recognition of the South- 
ern Confederacy, which Minister Adams had said would mean a war 
with the Northern States, was already in process of passing in the 
House of Commons, for he writes: 

The motion was never pressed to a division; for during its 
progress there came at one moment the news that General 
Grant had taken Vicksburg, on the Mississippi, and that General 
Meade had defeated General Lee, at Gettysburg, and put an end 
to all thought of a Southern invasion. . . . There was no more 
said in this country about the recognition of the Southern Con- 
federation, and the Emperor of the French was thenceforth free 
to follow out his plans as far as he could, and alone. 
It was during these dismal hours of trembling hope that Germany 
proved herself the friend of the Union. Whereas England would not 
loan the Lincoln administration $10,000,000, six times that amount 
was forthcoming from Germany. 

When in 1870 a disposition developed here to supply France with 
arms against Germany, some heated debates took place in the Senate, 
in which events of 1861-65 were naturally brought up for review, and 
it is interesting to quote from the debates of that period as reported 
in the "Globe Congressional Record," 3rd Session, 41st Congress. Part 
II. From pp. 953-955: 

Mr. Stewart, Senator from Nevada: "Allow me to call the 
attention of the Senator from Tennessee to the fact, which he 
must recollect, of the amount of our bonds that Were taken in 

111 



Germany at the time we needed that they should be taken, and 
when they were prohibited from the Exchange in London and 
from the Bourse in Paris, and not allowed to be on the markets 
there at all on account of the state of public opinion there, while 
Germany alone came in and took five or $600,000,000 at a time 
when we needed money more than anything else, to sustain our 
credit. That is a fact showing sympathy, certainly." 
Senator Pomeroy, of Kansas, quoted on p. 954, said: 

They (the Germans) sent us men; they recruited our armies 
with men; they helped to save the life of this nation. Though 
the French were our ancient allies, the Germans have been our 
modern allies. 

And well did Senator Charles Sumner put it when he declared in 
the United States Senate, ("Congressional Record," 3rd Session, 41st 
Congress, Page 956): "We owe infinitely to Germany." 

A formal acknowledgement of our debt to Germany during the most 
critical stage of our history was made by Secretary of State William 
H. Seward through the American Minister at Berlin, in May, 1863, 
as follows: 

You will not hesitate to express assurance of the constant 
good will of the United States toward the king and the people 
who have dealt with us in good faith and great friendship 
during the severe trials through which we have been passing. 

At the close of the war, the Prussian deputies, some 260 in number, 
on April 26, 1865, submitted an address to the American Minister in 
Berlin, in which the following language occurs: 

Living among us you are witness of the heartfelt sympathy 
which this people have ever preserved for the people of the 
United States during the long and severe conflict. You are 
aware that Germany has looked with pride and joy on the 
thousands of her sons, who, in this struggle, have arrayed them- 
selves on the side of law and justice. You have seen with what 
joy the victories of the Union have been hailed and how con- 
fident our faith in the final triumph of the great cause of the 
restoration of the Union in all its greatness has ever been, even 
in the midst of adversity. 

While there is a strong tendency in certain directions to ignore 
or obscure the facts of American history by imputing some vaguely 
unpatriotic motive to those who prefer to see the United States travel 
the same conservative path which has made it the dominating power 
of the world, after 140 years of devotion to the patriotic standards 
established by the founders of the Republic, it shall not deter us 
from calling attention to the testimony of a great American, James G. 
Blane, by quoting certain passages from his book, "Twenty Years in 
Congress," which leave no doubt what his attitude would be to-day. 
The quotations are taken from Vol. II, p. 447: 

From the government of England, terming itself liberal with 

. Lord Palmerston at its head, Earl Russel as Foreign Secretary. 

"Mr. Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Duke of 

112 



Argyll as Lord Privy Seal, and Earl Granville as Lord Presi- 
dent of the Council, not one friendly word was sent across the 
Atlantic. A formal neutrality was declared by government offi- 
cials, while its spirit was daily violated. If the Republic had 
been a dependency of Great Britain, like Ganada or Australia, 
engaged in civil strife, it could not have been more steadily sub- 
jected to review, to criticism, and to the menace of discipline. 
The proclamations of President Lincoln, the decisions of Fed- 
eral Gourts, the orders issued by commanders of the Union 
armies, were frequently brought to the attention of Parliament, 
as if America were in some way accountable to the judgment of 
England. Harsh comment came from leading British statesmen; 
while the most ribald defamers of the United States met with 
cheers from a majority of the House of Gommons and indulged 
in the bitterest denunciation of a friendly government without 
rebuke from the Ministerial benches. 

(Vol. II, Ghap. 20) : March 7, 1862, Lord Robert Gecil, in dis- 
cussing the blockade of the southern coast, said: "The plain 
matter of fact is, as every one who watches the current of 
history must know, that the Northern States of America never 
can be our sure friends, for this simple reason: not merely be- 
cause the newspapers write at each other, or that there^ are 
prejudices on each side, but because we are rivals, rivals 
politically, rivals commercially. We aspire to the same position. 
We both aspire to the government of the seas. We are both 
manufacturing people, and in every port, as well as at every 
court, we are rivals to each other." 

March 26, 1863, Mr. Laird of Birkenhead: "The institutions of 
the United States are of no value whatever, and have reduced 
the very name of liberty to an utter absurdity." He was loudly 
cheered for saying this. 

April, 1863, Mr. Roebuck declared: "That the whole conduct 
of the people of the North is such as proves them not only unfit 
for the government of themselves, but unfit for the courtesies 
and the community of the civilized world." 

Lord Palmerston, Prime Minister of England, asserted that: 
"As far as my influence goes, I am determined to do all I can to 
prevent the reconstruction of the Union." — "I hold that it will 
be of the greatest importance that the reconstruction of the 
Union should not take place." 

February 5, 1863, Lord Malmesbury spoke disdainfully of treat- 
ing with so extraordinary a body as the government of the 
United States, and referred to the horrors of the war — "horrors 
unparalleled even in the wars of barbarous nations." 
England confidently believed that the North would suffer a crushing 

defeat, and the same opinion was held by the French government. 

Napoleon the Third felt absolutely confident that the South would 

triumph. (See "France's Friendship for the United States.") 

The London "Times" in 1862 voiced English sentiment against the 

Union in a manner that has been paralleled only by its denunciations 

of Germany at the present time. It said: 

"To bully the weak, to triumph over the helpless, to trample 
on every law of country and customs, wilfully to violate the 
most sacred interests of human nature — to defy as long as 

113 



danger does not appear, and as soon as real peril shows itself, 
to sneak aside and run away — these are the virtues of the race 
which presumes to announce itself as the leader of civilization 
and the prophet of human progress in these latter days." 
A clear statement of the English Parliament's attitude toward the 
United States in the Civil War is contained in the autobiography of 
Sir William Gregory, K. C. M. G. (Member of Parliament and one- 
time Governor of Ceylon), edited by Lady Gregory (London, 1894), 
pp. 214-6: ''The feeling of the' upper classes undoubtedly predominated 
in favor of the South, so much so that when I said in a speech that the 
adherents of the North in the House of Commons might all be driven 
home in one omnibus, the remark was received with much cheering." 
Among those who invested in the Confederate bonds were many 
Members of Parliament and editors of London newspapers. Promi- 
nent among them was Gladstone. "Donahoe's Magazine," April, 1867, 
published a list of prominent investors in Confederate bonds, which 
shows that 29 persons lost a total of $4,490,000 in such investments. 
The list follows: 



Lbs. 
Sir Henry de Hington, 

Bart 180,000 



Lbs. 
10,000 



10,000 



Isaac Campbell & Co. ... 150,000 
Thomas Sterling Begley. . 140,000 

Marquis of Bath 50,000 

James Spence 50,000 

Beresford Hope ' 50,000 

George Edward Seymour 40,000 

Charles Joice & Co 40,000 

Messrs. Ferace 30,000 

Alexander Colie & Co. . . 20,000 
Fleetwood, Polen, Wilson 

& Schuster, Directors of 

Union Bank of London, 

together 20,000 

W. S. Lindsay 20,000 

Sir Coutts Lindsay, Bart 20,000 
John Laced, M. P. from 

Birkenhead 20,000 

M. B. Sampson, Editor of 

Times 15,000 Total Losses £898,000 

The present holders of these bonds have never despaired of being 
able some day to collect the amounts from the United States Treasury, 
and it will only need a closer alliance between the United States and 
Great Britain, as proposed by the advocates of an Anglo-Saxon 
amalgamation, to bring these claims to the front. 

Germans in Civil War. — Four authors have dealt exhaustively with 
the subject of the German-born soldiers in the Union army. They are 
Wilhclm Kaufmann in his valuable Work, "The Germans in the Ameri- 



John Thadeus Delane, 

Editor of Times ..... 
Lady Georgianna Time, 
Sister of Lord West- 
moreland 

J. S. Gillet, Director of the 

Bank of England 10,000 

D. Forbes Campbell 8.000 

George Peacock, M. P. . . 5,000 

Lord Warncliff 5,000 

W. H. Gregoty, M. P. .... 4,000 
W. J. Rideout, London 

Aborning Post 4,000 

Edward Ackroyd 1,000 

Lord Campbell 1,000 

Lord Donoughmore 1,000 

Lord Richard Grosvenor 
Hon. Evelyn Ashley, Priv. 

Sec. to Lord Palmerston 500 
Right Hon. W. E. Glad- 
stone 20,000 



114 



can Civil War" (R. Oldenbourg; Berlin and Munich; 1911), J. G. 
Rosengarten, "The German Soldier in the Wars of the United States" 
(J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, 1890), Frederic Phister, 
"Statistical Record of the Armies of the United States" (Charles 
Scribner's Sons, 1883) and B. A. Gould, "Investigations in the Statistics 
of American Soldiers" (New York, 1869). 

The first three are more or less founded on the latter, but in Kauf- 
mann, particularly, many errors of computation on the part of Gould 
are shown up which increase the number credited to the German par- 
ticipants in the Civil War. Rosengarten is particularly valuable as 
reference in regard to the share of the Germans in the Revolutionary 
War. According to Gould, more Germans served in the Union army 
than any other foreigners. This is substantiated by all the writers. 
Kaufmann proves that the colossal total of 216,000 native-born Ger- 
mans fought in the Union army. In addition the army included 300,000 
sons of German-born parents and 234,000 Germans of remoter ex- 
traction. Besides the Germans fighting in the ranks, Kaufmann holds 
that the roster of generals and other high officers of the Union army 
contained more names of German than of any foreign nationality. 
He also calls attention to the fact that a large number of German 
aristocrats, including such eminent names as von Steuben, Count 
Zeppelin, von Sedlitz, von Wedel, von Schwerin, and one German 
prince (Prinz zu Salm-Salm) took the field in behalf of the Union. 
Prince Salm-Salm was accompanied by his wife who performed valu- 
able service as a nurse. 

Professor Burgess writes: "The German and German American 
contingent in our armies amounted, first and last, to some 500,000 
soldiers. They were led by such men as Heintzelmann, Rosecrans, 
Schurz, Sigel, Osterhaus, Willich, Hartranft, Steinwehr, Wagner, 
Hecker and a thousand others. Mrs. Jefferson Davis, the wife of the 
Confederate President has often said to me that without the Germans 
the North could never have overcome the armies of the Confederacy; 
and unless that had been accomplished then, this continent would have 
been, since then, the theatre of continuous war instead of the home 
of peace." 

Gould's figures of the relative number of foreign-born soldiers in the 
Union army are as follows: 

Germans 187,858 

British Americans 53,532 

English 45,508 

Irish 144,221 

Other foreigners 48,410 

Foreigners not otherwise designated 26,145 

According to these figures, the Germans constituted upward of ZT^o 

of the foreign-born soldiers in the Union army, while the English 

numbered less than 8%. The Anglo-Saxon, therefore, is not repre- 

115 



sented in a critical stage of the nation's struggle for survival in pro- 
portion to the importance assigned him in our affairs at the present 
day. 

Kaufmann, in analyzing these figures, shows that the number was 
understated as regards the Germans and overstated as regards the 
Canadians. More than 36 per cent of the Union troops furnished by 
the State of Missouri were born in Germany, and the Germans fur- 
nished more troops pro rata, according to the census of 1860, than 
any other racial element, including native born Americans. It is 
interesting to note that the States in which the Germans were largely 
represented made the largest response to President Lincoln's first call 
for volunters. The call, issued April 15, 1861, was for 75,000 volun- 
teers to serve three months. New England was the center of the 
agitation and the hot-bed of the abolition movement. Lincoln's call 
was responded to by 91,816 men. 

New England was represented by only 11,987 

New York 12,357 

Pennsylvania 20,175 

Ohio 12,357 

Missouri 10,591 

Taking Gould's figures, the State of Missouri and the State of New 
York each sent more German-born soldiers to the war than either 
Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Delaware, 
Maryland, District of Columbia, West Virginia, ^Minnesota or Kansas 
sent native-born troops, and the German-born Union soldiers from 
these two states together (67,579 men) formed a larger contingent 
than the native-born contingent of either New Jersey or Maine, and 
larger than New Hampshire, Vermont and Delaware together (64,600 
men). Pennsylvania furnished more German-born troops than Dela- 
ware, District of Columbia or Kansas separately furnished native 
Americans. Six States — New York, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Pennsyl- 
vania and Wisconsin — furnished more German-born soldiers to de- 
fend the country than Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Con- 
necticut did native sons. More German-born Union soldiers came 
from New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Missouri than native- 
born from Massachusetts. The effort of Provost Marshal Fry to 
charge about 200,000 desertions and innumerable cases of bounty 
jumpers to the account of foreign-born element in the Union army 
leaves the Germans unscathed, since he showed that "especially in 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey 
the number of deserters is especially large." In the New England 
States there were but 5,077 German enlistments out of 369,800 (Gould) 
all told, and the desertions in those states as well as New York and 
New Jersey, in view of the large German enlistments in the Western 
States not named as noted for desertions, must be charged to some 
other element. It was the practice to blame all the evils during the 

116 



war on the foreign-born and to shift to their patient shoulders the sins 
of commission and omission of others. 

It is impossible for lack of space to name more than a comparatively 
few of the Germans who as officers distinguished themselves in the 
Civil War. Several omitted in the list below will be found under 
their names in separate paragraphs. In many instances the German 
officers who by their efficiency and splendid training in Germany had 
laid the foundation of notable victories were callously deprived of all 
credit, and in the case of others jealousy and a deeply grounded 
racial antipathy intervened to prevent them from obtaining the rank 
to which they were by education, experience and achievements en- 
titled. In any case where it was an issue between a native and a 
foreigner, the latter was sure to suffer. Those named below were 
born in Germany and do not include American-born Germans like 
Generals Rosecrans, Heintzelmann, Hartrauft, Custer, etc. 

Franz Sigel, Major General and Corps Commander; born 1824, at 
Sinsheim, Baden; died in New York in 1902. His memory is honored 
by two equestrian statues. A detailed account of his achievements is 
not considered necessary here. His name has been a household word. 

Adolf von Steinwehr, probably the best-grounded military officer 
among the Germans in the Union army, Division Commander and 
Brigadier General; born 1822 in Blankenburg, in the Harz, died 1877 
in Buffalo. Prussian officer and military instructor in Potsdam. 
Served in the Mexican war. Distinguished himself at Gettysburg, 
where he held Cemetery Hill, (for which Gen. Howard received the 
thanks of Congress), gathered the remnants of the 11th and 1st corps, 
and continued the defense July 2 and 3. 

August von Willich, one of the most famous fighters in the Union 
army, a typical "Marshal Forward." Brevet Alajor General and Di- 
vision Commander; born in Posen 1810, died at St. Marys, Ohio, 1878. 
Made possible the advance of Rosecrans's army upon Chattanooga by 
taking Liberty and Hoover's Gap in the Alleghanies. Earned laurels 
at Chickamauga and set an heroic example to the whole army by lead- 
ing his nine regiments up Missionary Ridge and sharing the great 
victory with Sheridan. 

Julius Stahel, German-Hungarian. Perfected the organization of 
the Union Cavalry. Generals Hooker and Heintzelmann pronounced 
Stahel's cavalry regiment to be the best they had ever seen. At 
Lincoln's request, to this cavalry was confided the defense of Wash- 
ington. Was made Major General simultaneousl>r with Schurz. Com- 
manded the vanguard of Hunter's army in the Shenandoah Valley, 
was attacked by the Confederate Cavalry under Jones on the march 
to Staunton, repulsed the attack and pursued his opponent to Pied- 
mont, where he found the enemy strongly entrenched. Stahel re- 
pulsed all attacks until Hunter's arrival and won the medal for 
bravery. Though seriously wounded, he led his squadron in a bril- 

117 



Haiit assault, broke through the enemy's lines and scattered the oppos- 
ing forces. 

Gottfried Weitzel; Major General and Corps Commander; born in 
the Palatinate; educated at West Point; lieutenant in the engineer 
corps, U. S. A. Commanded a division under Grant, and at the head 
of the 25th army corps was the first to enter Richmond, April 3, 1865, 
where the next day he received President Lincoln. The following 
dispatch explains itself: 

WAR DEPARTMENT, 

Washington, April 3, 10 A. M. 
To Major General Dix: 

It appears from a dispatch of General Weitzel, just received by this 
Department, that our forces under his command are in Richmond, 
having taken it at 8:30 this A. M. E. M. STANTON, Sec'y of War. 

August V. Kautz; Brevet Major General; born in Pfarzheim, dis- 
tinguished cavalry leader. Served during the Mexican war. Com- 
manded the 24th army corps, with which he entered Richmond with 
Weitzel. Became Major General in the regular army after the war. 
Admiral Albert Kautz was his brother. 

Colonel Asmussen, Chief of Staff to General O. O. Howard; former 
Prussian ofificer. Resigned as the result of serious wounds. 

Ludwig Blenker, born 1812 in Worms, died 1863 in Pennsylvania. 
Served in Greece and in the Baden revolution. Became famous for 
covering the retreat at the first battle of Bull- Run. 

Heinrich Bohlen, born 1810 in Bremen; killed in battle at Freeman's 
Ford on the Rappahannock, August 21, 1862. Brigade Commander 
under Blenker; distinguished himself at Cross Keys. 

Adolf Buschbeckj Brigadier General; a Prussian officer from Co- 
blenz; military instructor at Potsdam. Died 1881. Distinguished him- 
self in the two battles of Bull Run and at Cross Keys, and became the 
real hero of Chancellorsville; fought gallantly at Gettsyburg and 
Missionary Ridge, and was in Sherman's march through Georgia, gain- 
ing new laurels in the bloody battles of Peachtree Creek, and at Ezra 
Church, July 28, 1864, where Buschbeck repulsed the enemy three times. 
With Willich and Wangelin the most noted German American fighter 
in the Union army, 

Hubert Dilger, a former artillery officer in Baden, although never 
attaining a rank beyond that of captain, distinguished himself in 
numerous battles for the Union. By many considered the ablest 
artillery officer in the northern army. Commanded the only gun which 
was effectively served in the defense of Bushbeck's brigade at Chan- 
cellorsville. Its escape from destruction was almost miraculous. Was 
famous throughout the army. 

Leopold von Gilsa, former Prussian officer; brigadier general; 
rendered distinguished service in numerous campaigns, but failed of 
promotion through the admitted intrigues of the Princess Salm-Salm. 

118 



Wilhelm Grebe; born in Hildersheim. Received from Congress medal 
for personal bravery; was cashiered for fighting a duel, but restored 
twenty years after by an act of Congress. 

Franz Hassendeubel, one of the most distinguished engineer officers 
in the Northern army; born 1817 in Germersheim, Palatinate. Came 
to America in 1842; engineer officer in Mexican war; built the ten 
forts that defended St. Louis. Brigadier General in 1863. Fatally 
wounded on a tour of inspection around Vicksburg, died July 17, 1863. 
Hassendeubel Post, G. A. R., St. Louis, perpetuates his memory, 

Ernst F. Hoffmann, former Prussian engineer officer, born in Bres- 
lau. Chief engineer 11th army corps. Highly praised by General J. 
H. Wilson. 

George W. Mindel, brevet major general, twice awarded the medal 
for bravery, the first time for directing the assault of a regiment which 
pierced the enemy's center in the battle of Williamsburg, May 3, 1862, 
the second time in the march through Georgia; officer on McClellan's 
and Phil Kearney's staffs; distinguished himself at Missionary Ridge. 
Born in Frankfort and buried in Arlington. 

Edward G. Salomon, brevet brigadier general, organized a Hebrew 
company in Hecker's 82d Illinois, and became its Colonel when 
Hecker was wounded; rendered distinguished service throughout the 
war, and was appointed governor of Washington territory. 

Alexander von Schimmelpfenning, one of the most noted German- 
American fighting generals; died 1865 from the hardships of the war. 
Former Prussian officer. Recruited the 74th Pennsylvania regiment, 
one of the elite regiments in the Army of the Potomac. In the second 
battle of Bull Run his brigade hurled General Jackson's crack troops 
back over the railroad beyond Cushing's Farm. Fought with dis- 
tinction at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg and was the first to enter 
the hotbed of secession, Charleston, S. C. He was an officer, one of 
many Germans, whose memory deserved to live for their deeds, and 
whose deserts were minimized b)' those who envied them. 

Theodore Schwan, general in the regular army, from Hanover; rose 
from the ranks; fought against the Mormons and took part in twenty 
battles during the Civil War. Received the medal for personal bravery 
from Congress, and after the war became an Indian fighter; military 
attache to the American embassy in Berlin 1892; published his military 
studies, which were highly praised. Was the real conqueror of Porto 
Rica, Spanish-American War, in which he commanded a division of 
20,000 men under General Miles. 

Hugo von Wangelin descended from an old Mecklenburg noble family; 
educated in a Prussian military school; came to America at the age 
of 16. Fought almost continuallj^ alongside of Osterhaus throughout 
the war. His brigade earned undying glory at Vicksburg, Lookout 
Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and Ringgold, Ga., where he lost an arm. 
He whistled "Yankee Doodle" while the surgeons were sawing through 

119 



the bone. Wangelin held Bald Hill before Atlanta, after the Union 
troops had been previously driven off. Engaged in fifty battles and 
was four years continually on the firing line. His "vacations" were 
periods of convalescense from wounds. 

Max von Weber; fought under Sigel in the Baden revolution. 
Colonel of the 20th New York (Turners) 1861, until appointed brig- 
adier general. Commanded Fortress Monroe and won distinction in 
the fights around Norfolk. At Antietam he commanded the third 
brigade of the third division French in Sumner's corps, and still held 
the position at Rulett's House after Sedgwick's left had been en- 
veloped, exposed to a murderous fire until relieved by Kimball's brig- 
ade and after repeatedly repulsing the enemy. He was seriously 
wounded. 

Germans in the Confederate Army. — Among the German-born offi- 
cers in the Confederate army the most distinguished was General Jeb 
Stuart's chief of staff, Heros von Borcke, a brilliant cavalry leader. 
Prussian officer. Came to America 1862 to offer his services to the 
Confederacy and was immediately assigned to duty with the great 
Confederate cavalry chief, Gen. Stuart, and became his right hand. 
Was seriously wounded at Middleburg and for months his life hung 
by a thread; was rendered unfit for service and in the winter of 1864 
was sent to England on a secret mission by the Confederate govern- 
ment, but peace interrupted his activity. Was highly popular in the 
army and received more recognition than any German officer on the 
Northern side; his visit to the South twenty years after the close of 
the war was turned into a public ovation. His sword hangs in the 
Capitol at Richmond. — John A. Wagener, brigadier general and later 
mayor of Charleston, S. C. Born in Bremerhaven 1824. Defended 
Fort Walker, which he had built. Two of his sons, one aged 15, here 
served under their father. Half of the garrison was killed or wounded. 
It was Wagener who surrendered Charleston to his countryman, 
General Schimmelpfennig. — Gust. Adolf Schwarmann; Colonel in Gen. 
Wise's Legion. — J. Scheibert; major in the Prussian Engineer Corps; 
came over as an observer but became an officer in Stuart's Cavalry. 
Wrote a military book on the war, published in Germany. Gen. Lee 
told him on the battlefield of Chancellorsville: "Give me Prussian 
discipline and Prussian formation for my troops and you would see 
quite different results." — Gustav Schleicher, born in Darmstadt. Well- 
known Congressman from Texas, after the war; commemorated in a 
memorial speech by President Garfield; chiefly active in devising 
fortifications. — Baron von Massow (see under "M."). — Scheie de Ver, 
Maximillian; born in Pommerania; Prussian reserve officer; professor 
at the Virginia State University, Richmond; Colonel of a Confederate 
regiment and emissary to Germany to espouse the Confederate cause. — 
R. M. Streibling; battery chief in Longstreet's Corps; former Bruns- 
wick artillery officer. — August Reichard; former Hanovarian officer, 

120 



tried to form a unit of German militia companies and after many dis- 
appointments succeeded in organizing a German battalion consisting 
of Steuben Guards, Capt. Kehrwald; Turner Guards, Capt. Baehncke; 
Reichard Sharpshooters, Capt. Muller; Florence Guards, Capt. Brum- 
merstadt. The battalion with four Irish companies was merged into 
the 20th Louisiana with Reichard as Colonel and served with distinc- 
tion in many battles, the regiment suffered frightful losses at Shiloh. — 
Karl F. Henningsen, in 1860, appointed advisor to Governor Wise of 
Virginia; born in Hannover; fought in the Carlist army in Spain at 17, 
then in Russia, participated in the Hungarian revolution and became 
leader of a filbuster party in Nicaragua. — August Buechel, Confederate 
brigadier general, former officer at Hesse-Darmstadt, killed in the 
battle of Pleasant Hill, La., struck by seven bullets; also served in the 
Mexican war. — W. K. Bachmann, Captain, Charleston German artillery; 
rendered distinguished service. 

Germantown Settlement. — On March 4^ 1681, a royal charter was 
issued to William Penn for the province of Pennsylvania, and on 
March 10, 1682, Penn conveyed to Jacob Telner, of Crefeld, Germany, 
doing business as a merchant in Amsterdam; Jan Streypers, a merchant 
of Kaldkirchen, a village in the vicinity of Holland, and Dirck Sip- 
mann, of Crefeld, each 5,000 acres of land, to be laid out in Pennsyl- 
vania. On June 11, 1683, Penn conveyed to Gavert Remke, Lenard 
Arets and Jacob Isaac Van Bebber, a baker, all of Crefeld, 1,000 acres 
of land each, and they, together with Telner, Streypers and Sipmann, 
constituted the original Crefeld purchasers^ 

The present generation is indebted to former Governor Samuel 
Whitaker Perinypacker, LL.D., of Pennsylvania, at one time presiding 
judge of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, and senior vice 
president of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, for important 
information on the settlement of Germantown, and directly to his 
book, "The Settlement of Germantown, Pa., and the Beginning of 
German Emigration to North America," a valuable historical com- 
pilation, now out of print. "The settlement of Germantown, in 1683," 
he writes, "was the initial step in the great movement of people from 
the regions bordering on the historic and beautiful Rhine, extending 
from its source in the mountains of Switzerland to its mouth in the 
lowlands of Holland, which has done so much to give Pennsylvania 
her rapid growth as a colony, her almost unexampled prosperity, and 
her foremost rank in the development of the institutions of the 
country." 

From the pages of his book we learn that the "Concord," which 
bore the Germantown settlers to our shores, was a vessel of 500 tons, 
William Jeffries, master. She sailed July 24, 1683, from Gravesend, 
with the following passengers and their families: 

Lenard Arets, Abraham Op den Graeff, Dirck Op den Graeff, Her- 
mann Op den Graeff, William Streypers, Thonas Kunders, Reynier 

121 




.^^%.x>. 



THONAS KUNDERS' HOUSE, 
5109 Main Street, Germantown, Pa. 



Tyson, Jan Seimens, Jan Lensen, Peter Keurlis, Johannes Bleikers, 
Jan Lucken and Abraham Tunes, all Low Germans. The date of her 
arrival was October 6, 1683. 

The three Op den Graeffs were brothers. Herman was a son-in-law 
of Van Bebber; they were accompanied by their sister Margaretha, 
and their mother, and they were cousins of Jan and William Streypers, 
who were also brothers. The wives of Thonas Kunders and Lenard 
Arets were sisters of the Streypers, and the wife of Jan was the sister 
of Reynier Tyson (Theissen). Peter Keurlis was also a relative, and 
the location of the signatures of Jan Lucken and Abraham Tunes on 
the certificate of the marriage of the son of Thones Kunders with a 
daughter of William Streypers in 1700 indicates that they, too, were 
connected with the group by family ties. "It is now ascertained 
definitely," writes Governor Pennypacker, "that eleven of these 
thirteen emigrants were from Crefeld, and the presumption that their 
two companions, Jan Lucken and Abraham Tunes, came from the 
same city is consequently strong. This presumption is increased by 
the indication of relationship and the fact that the wife of Jan 
Seimens was Mercken Williamsen Lucken." 

Pastorius had sailed six weeks earlier and had arrived in Phila- 
delphia August 20, 1683. Governor Pennypacker has traced with re- 
markable minuteness the movements of the first concrete German 
settlement, and his invaluable work should not be allowed to slumber 
in a few surviving copies, now selling as high as $50 as literary 
curiosities, on the shelves of a few large libraries, but should be re- 
printed and made accessible to a larger reading public. The in- 
fluence of this settlement in later generations is discussed elsewhere. 
(See under "Pastorius.") The history of the "Concord" is given in 
Seidensticker's "Bilder aus der Deutsch-Pennsylvanischen Ge- 
schichte" and valuable information is contained in "The German Ele- 
ment in the United States," by Albert B. Faust, (Houghton Mifflin 
Company), who has done more than any other American author to 
gather the scattered records of German immigration, culture and in- 
fluence and to present them within the convenient compass of two 
volumes. 

Thonas Kunders' house, 5109 Main street, Germantown, is the only 
house of the original settlers that can be accurately located. Thonas 
Kunders was a dyer by trade. His death occurred in the fall of 1729. 
He was the ancestor of the Conard and Conrad families. Among his 
descendants is included Sir Samuel Cunard, founder of the Cunard 
line of steamships. Here the first meeting of the Society of Friends 
in Germantown was held, and it was from the members of this little 
meeting that a public protest against slavery was issued early in 1688. 
Following is a summary of Germantown events; 

123 



1683 — August 16 — Pastorius reaches Philadelphia. 

1683 — October 6 — Thirteen families from Crefeld reach Phila- 
delphia and settle Germantown. 

1688 — First protest against slavery issued here. 

1690 — First paper mill in America established here. 

1705 — First portrait in oil painted in America, made in German- 
town by Dr. Christopher Witt, 

1708 — First Mennonite meeting house in America built in Ger- 
mantown. 

1719 — February 17 — Death of Pastorius. 

1732 — April 8 — David Rittenhouse born at Germantown. 

1743 — First Bible in America in a foreign tongue printed in 
Germantown by Christopher Sauer. 

1760 — Germantown Academy founded. 

1764 — Sauer begins publication of first religious magazine in 
America. 

1770 — First American book on pedagogy published. 

1772-73 — First type ever cast in America made in Germantown. 
— ("Guidebook to Historic Germantown.") 
Why Germany Strengthened Her Army, Told by Asquith — (From 
a London dispatch by Marconi wireless to the New York "Times" 
under date of January 1, 1914): "The 'Daily Chronicle' this morning 
publishes the conversation with the Chancellor's consent. . . . An- 
other reason which the Chancellor (Asquith) gave was that the con- 
tinental nations were directing their energies more and more to 
strengthening their land forces. *The German army,' he said, *was 
vital to the very life and independence of the nation itself, surrounded 
as Germany was by nations each of which possessed armies almost 
as powerful as her own. . . . Hence Germany was spending huge 
sums of money on the expansion of her military resources." 

Hagner, Peter. — First to hold the position of Third Auditor of the 
U. S. Treasury upon the creation of that office in 1817 under President 
Monroe. Served the government 57 years and died at Washington, 
July 16, 1849, aged seventy-seven. Born in Philadelphia, October 1, 
1772. 

Hartford Convention, The. — In no section of the country was there 
louder acclaim of President Wilson's public insinuations of disloyalty 
against German Americans than in New England. The Boston papers 
particularly distinguished themselves in applauding this unwarranted 
sentiment. And it came with particularly bad grace from this section, 
which long antedated the South in measures designed to embarrass 
and disrupt the Union. During the War of 1812 the New England 
banks sought to cripple the federal government in securing the neces 
sary money to prosecute the war against England, and late in 1814 
the legislature of Massachusetts called a convention of the New Eng- 
land states to meet at Hartford in December of that year. The sessions 

124 



were secret and while the discussion was never published they were 
co^ijnonly held to be treasonable and intended to destroy the Union. 
The Convention recognized the principle of secession by proclaimng 
that "a severence of the Union by one or more states, against the will 
of the rest and especially in the time of war, can be justified only by 
absolute necessity." The Convention made demands, the apparent in- 
tention of which was "to force these demands upon an unwilling ad- 
ministration while it was hampered by a foreign war, or in case of 
refusal to make such refusal a pretext for dismembering the Union. 
. . . An additional object of the Convention was to hamper and crip- 
ple the administration to the last degree, and at a moment when the 
country was overrun by a foreign foe, to overthrow the party in 
power, or to break up the Union. The men of this Convention were 
among the leading Federalists of the country, and with all their good 
qualities it is evident that their patriotism was shallow." ("History 
of the United States" by Henry William Elson, Ph. D., Litt. D. The 
MacMillan Company, p. 446-447). The work of the Convention came 
to naught. Peace put a stop to its intended mischief. 

Hempel. — German American inventor of the much patented iron 
"quoin," used to lock tj^pe in the form, and in common use by printers. 

New York Herald Urges Hanging of German Americans. — The 
New York "Herald," owned and directed by James Gordon Bennett, 
since deceased; who for thirty-five years was a resident of Paris, 
in its issue of July 12, 1915, advocated the lynching of German 
Americans by referring to them as "Hessians" and adding: "A rope 
attached to the nearest lamp post would soon bring to an end their 
career of crime." 

Hereshoffs and Cramps. — Who in the great yachting v/orld of 
America has not heard of the Herreshofifs, the famous builders of 
racing yachts whose achievements won international fame for the 
United States? The original Hereshoff, Karl Friedrich, was born in 
Minden, Germany, and came to this country an accomplished engineer 
in 1800, establishing himself at Providence, R. I., where he married 
the daughter of John Browm, a shipbuilder. Their son and their 
grandsons took up naval architecture, and their remarkable achieve- 
ments culminated in the fast racing yachts designed by John B., 
famous as the blind yacht builder, whose vessels successfully defended 
the Americaji Cup against English contestants in several great inter- 
national trials. The Cramps, great American ship builders, are also 
of German descent. Johann Georg Krampf, the founder, was a native 
of Baden, who came to the U. S. in the middle of the 17th century, 
and members of the family established what is now one of the 
greatest shipbuilding firms in the world. 

Herkimer, General Nicholas. — Won the battle of Oriskany, which 
many regard as the decisive battle of the Revolution. Was the eldest 

125 



son of Johann Jost Herkimer (or Herchheimer), a native of the 
German Palatinate, and one of the original patentees of what is now 
part of Herkimer County, N. Y. Was commissioned a lieutenant in 
the Schenectady militia, January 5, 1758, and commanded Fort Herki- 
mer that year when the French and Indians attacked the Gernidn 
Flats. Appointed colonel of the first battalion of militia in Tryon 
County in 1775, and represented his district in the County Committee 
of Safety, of which he was chairman. Was commissioned brigadier 
general Sept. 5, 1776, by the Convention of the State of New York, 
and August 6, 1777, commanded the American forces at the battle 
of Oriskany, where he received a mortal wound but directed the battle 
from under a tree until its successful conclusion, dying ten days later 
at his home, the present town of Danube, N. Y. 

Congress testified its appreciation of his service by twice passing 
resolutions requesting New York to erect a monument at the expense 
of the United States. A statue of the famous German American has 
finally been erected at Herkimer, N. Y., through the liberality of 
former U. S. Senator Warner Miller. The battle of Oriskany was 
fought by the Mohawk Valley Germans without assistance, other re- 
ports notwithstanding. A part of the American troops under Herkimer 
refused to co-operate and left the Germans to the number of only 
800 to engage the enemy alone. 

Quoting an American writer: "The battle of Oriskany was one of 
the most important battles of the Revolution, and General Washing- 
ton said it was 'the first ray of sunshine.' The British forces, under 
Col. St. Leger, had landed at Oswego, coming from Canada, under 
orders to march through the Mohawk Valley to Albany, there to join 
Burgoyne, who was coming down from Canada with a large army, by 
way of Lake Champlain. These two forces were to meet at Albany 
and then go down the Hudson River, thus dividing the forces of the 
Americans. If this plan had succeeded doubtless the Revolution 
would have failed. However, the defeat of St. Leger at Oriskany sent 
his army back to Canada, and the defeat of Burgoyne later at Sara- 
toga ended the entire movement and led to the final victory at 
Yorktown." 

H. W. Elson, in his "History of the United States of America," says, 
"Oriskany was without exception the bloodiest single conflict in the 
war of the Revolution. . . . Nothing more horrible than the carnage 
of that battle has ever occurred in the history of warfare." 

In the Magazine of American History for August, 1884, was printed 
an exhaustive article, "The Story of a Monument," dealing largely 
with General Herkimer, the Battle of Oriskany, the character of its 
hero and the details of his personality and his surroundings. The 
author, S. W. D. North, quotes ex-Governor Dorsheimer as declaring 
at the Centennial C^ebration: "Oriskany was a German fight. The 
words of warning and encouragement, the exclamations of praise and 

126 




GENERAL HERKIMER 



of pain, the shouts of battle and of victory, and the command which 
the wounded Herkimer spoke and the prayers of the dying, were in 
the German language." The author holds, however, that even then 
the admixture of races had played pranks with the German names, 
until today the descendants of many of the participants in that "Ger- 
man fight" would not know the names of their ancestors if spelled 
on the roster as they were spelled correctly at the time Oriskany was 
fought. The problem was further complicated by the fact, says 
North, that the original Palatinates and their descendants who com- 
prised the bulk of the yeomanry of the Mohawk Valley in the Revolu- 
tion, were not an educated people. General Herkimer would be called 
an ignorant man these days. One of the most curious of the few 
existing specimens of his manuscript is preserved by the Oneida 
Historical Society, and throws a strange light on the mixed jargon 
in which even the hero of Oriskany issued his military orders and 
incidentally proves that the present spelling of his name was not his 
own way: 

"Ser you will order your bodellyen do merchs immeedeetleh 
do fordedward weid for das brofiesen and amonieschen fied for 
on betell. Dis yu will dis ben your berrell — from frind. 

NICOLAS HERCHHEIMER. 
"To Cornell pieder bellinger 

"ad de flets 
"Ochdober 18, 1776" 
Rendered into English, the order reads as follows: 

"Sir: You will order your battalion to march immediately to 
Fort Edward with four days' provisions and ammunition fit 
for one battle. This you will disobey (at) your peril. 

From (your) Friend, 
NICOLAS HERCHHEIMER. 
"To Colonel Peter Bellinger, at the Flats. 
"October 18, 1776." 
The Herkimer homestead is still preserved, and has now become 
an institution under the care of the State of New York. Agitation to 
bring this about was initiated by the German American Alliance, 
which raised the money to make the homestead a national memorial. 
The legislature granted a charter placing it under the care of the 
German American Alliance and the Daughters of the American Revolu- 
tion, who for years co-operated peacefully in the loving task en- 
trusted to them. Late in December, 1919, the last German American 
connected with the committee was forced out as a result of the desire 
to obliterate every reminder of the share of the German element in the 
memorial. (See "Palatine Declaration of Independence" elsewhere.) 
The Hessians. — The bitter partisan feeling during the war has led to 
a widespread misrepresentation of the share which the Germans 
took in the Revolutionary War. The employment by England of 
some thousands of mercenaries recruited in Anspach and Hessia 
against the American colonies has been extended to include all Ger- 

128 



many, regardless of the fact that there was no more ardent supporter 
of the cause of the colonists in Europe than the King of Prussia. The 
Hessians were sold to Great Britain at so much per head by their ruler. 
Their traffic was scathingly denounced by Frederick and the infamous 
transaction severely condemned by Schiller in his play, "Cabal and 
Love." 

Hessia represented to the rest of Germany, at that time composed of 
Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and other States, about what Dela- 
ware represents to the whole of the United States. To blame all 
Germany for the misconduct of an unconscionable princeling is the 
extreme of injustice. Counting the German regiments under Rocham- 
beau, nominally designated as Frenchmen, and the large number of 
German settlers in the ranks of Washington's army under Herkimer, 
Muhlenberg, Steuben, Woedtke, Pulaski, etc., the Hessian-Anspach 
contingent was more than offset by the Germans fighting for the cause 
of American independence. 

Thousands of Hessians were induced by their German countrymen 
to come over and enlist under the banner of the colonists, Pulaski's 
flying squadron was recruited from these deserters. Some of the best 
troops in Washington's immediate surrounding were former Hessians, 
and a Hessian deserter became one of Washington's most trusted 
messengers in matters of war. 

At the end of the war the country was full of Hessians. Many settled 
in Lebanon, Lancaster and Reading, Pa., and about 1,600 settled four 
miles from Winchester, Va., in 178L Some of the sterling troops 
which made up Jackson's Stonewall brigade in the Civil War were 
made up of the descendants of the Germans, many of them Hessians, 
who settled in the Shenandoah Valley. 

If the Hessians, fighting reluctantly for a cause in which they had no 
heart, must be condemned by public sentiment, what shall be said of 
the native Americans, the Tory element, 26,000 of whom fled to Can- 
ada, while thousands of others fought in the English ranks against their 
own kin? Among the troops surrendered at Yorktown under Lord 
Cornwallis and General O'Hara, we find enumerated a body of South 
Carolina militiamen called "Volunteers," "the Royal American 
Rangers," etc., not counting the American deserters who had joined 
Cornwallis during the siege. (See "Frederick the Great and the Amer- 
ican Colonies.") 

Hillegas, Michael. — First Treasurer of the United States, appointed 
July 29, 1776; son of German parents; born in Philadelphia, where his 
father was a well-to-do merchant. Served till Sept. 2, 1789. Hillegas 
with several other patriotic citizens came to the aid of the government 
in the Spring of 1780 with his private means to relieve the distress 
of Washington's soldiers, and in 1781 became one of the founders of 
the Bank of North America, which afforded liberal support to the 
government during its financial difficulties. When a man named 

129 



Philip Ginter submitted to him a piece of coal which he had found 
on Mauch-Chunk Hill, Hillegas pronounced it genuine coal, and with 
several others founded the Lehigh Coal Mining Co. and acquired 
10,000 acres of coal land from the State of Pennsylvania. Died in 
Philadelphia, Sept. 29, 1804. 

House, Col. E. M. — It is claimed that the part played by Col. E. M. 
House in the diplomatic history of the war has been correctly gauged 
by but few persons, and these attribute to him the exercise of a greater 
influence in shaping the program of the Wilson administration than 
any one else, not excepting the President, Some have sought to trace 
an intimate connection between the policies that invested the Chief 
Executive with more power than any president before him with an 
anonymous novel, "Philip Dru, Administrator," generally attributed 
to Colonel House, in which a comprehensive program is laid down for 
the government of the United States by Dru after finishing a suc- 
cessful war. 

It is undeniable that a more than casual analogy may be found 
between the lines of policy defined in the novel and those seemingly 
followed by the administration down to the Versailles conference. 

"Philip Dru" is the story of an American Cromwell, who prevented 
an alliance between England and Germany and made one between 
England and the United States. In the novel Dru wages a successful 
civil war and sets himself up as the administrator of the country, 
establishing a dictatorship, remodels our system of government, con- 
quers and incorporates Mexico, remodels our relations with Canada, 
establishes a close bond with England, wipes out all memories of the 
Civil War by having Grant and Lee clasp hands on the same pedi- 
ment, elects his own president and assigns to each of the powers 
its allotted space in the universe, after which he disappears like the 
good fairy of the books. 

A passage from the novel affords fair insight into its philosophy. 
On page 156 the author makes Dru say: "For a long time I have 
known that this hour would come, and there would be those of you 
who stand affrighted at the momentous change from constitutional 
government to despotism, no matter how pure and exalted you might 
believe my intentions to be. But in the long watches of the night I 
conceived a plan of government which, by the grace of God, I hope 
to be able to give to the American people. My life is consecrated to 
our cause and, hateful as the thought of assuming supreme power, 
I can see no other way clearly, and I would be recreant to my trust 
if I faltered in my duty." 

The book thus takes on a strange prophetic character, considering 
that it was published in 1912, two years before the outbreak of the 
war, as though the writer had laid down a great plan of action which 
he was in the process of carrying out when the elections of 1918 
raised an unexpected obstacle to its further execution, 

130 



The close friendship between President Wilson and Colonel House, 
according to the latter's biographer, dates from the time when, after 
having considered Mayor Gaynor of New York and found himself 
disappointed in his expectations. Colonel House decided to make 
Wilson President in 1912. In the selection for the Cabinet two promi- 
nent Texans, Attorney General Gregory and Postmaster General 
Burleson, were named, and many others were by him designated for 
responsible positions. It has been pointed out in certain quarters 
that many of the most important measures leading up to and includ- 
ing the war bear a more or less striking resemblance to those out- 
lined in "Philip Dru," even to the investment of the President with 
almost absolute powers. Colonel House's residence in New York 
became the calling place of foreign ambassadors, where vital questions 
of State and our international relations were dealt with before they 
reached the President. Count Bernstorff, former German ambassador 
to the United States, testified before the Reichstag Commission in- 
vestigating the war that he handed Colonel House an important note 
on peace which was never heard of afterward. 

Colonel House has been called "the mysterious"; he seeks distinc- 
tion in doing his work in secrecy, rewarding his friends and punishing 
his enemies in ways not readily apparent, laying out his policies with- 
out revealing his hand and executing well-devised plans without the 
noise and trumpery of cheap publicity. In this manner he is credited 
with shaping the policies of the administration at the peace confer- 
ence, where he was, next to the President, the principal representa- 
tive of the United States, working congenially with Clemenceau and 
Lloyd George and acting as moderator on the President in the latter's 
earlier demands for a stricter observance on the part of the Allies 
of his Fourteen Points. As related in a Paris correspondence in the 
New York "Tribune," dated April 16, 1919, "President Wilson, realiz- 
ing that he had not .sufficient ground for further refusing to meet 
the demands of the three European allies, accepted the formula which 
Clemenceau and Lloyd George had worked out for reparations and 
accepted the plan which Colonel House had previously approved for 
the surrender of the Saar Valley by Germany for a long period of 
years, after which a plebiscite shall be held." 

A biographer of Colonel House says that the colonel's father was 
born in England and came to the United States during the Texas 
war for independence against Mexico, in which he participated. 
Texas having attained its independence, the elder House wanted Texas 
to become a colony of England, a project which, fortunately, did not 
materialize. During the Civil War, it is claimed, he acted for Eng- 
land in facilitating British blockade runners. As a boy Colonel House 
attended a school in England taught by the father of Lloyd George 
and the friendship between the latter and Colonel House dates back 
to their youth. During his stay in England he formed many close 

131 



attachments for prominent young Englishmen, and, on coming into 
his father's extensive property in Texas, he led the life of an English 
country gentleman and entertained many English gentlemen of family 
and fortune. His brother-in-law is Dr. Sydney Mezes, president of 
New York City College, who acted as chairman of the Frontier Com- 
mission at the Paris Peace Conference, and his son-in-law is Gordon 
Auchincloss, who acted as secretary to Colonel House. 

The Humanity of War. — About the time of the sinking of the 
Lusitania, our official notes on this and other subjects iq the negotia- 
tions with Germany teemed with appeals to humanity. No such 
view was accepted by England. In the British note of March 13, 
1915, Sir Edward Grey, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, told the Presi- 
dent: "There can be no universal rule based on considerations of 
morality and humanity." 

Illiteracy. — As a related element of interest in the study of the war 
from a cultural as well as a military angle the illiteracy of some of 
the contesting and neutral nations bears strongly on the question: 

France 14.1% Austria-Hungary .. . 187% 

Belgium 12.7% Germany 0.05% 

Greece 57.2% Denmark 0.0^% 

Italy 37.0% Netherlands 0.08% 

Portugal 68.9% Prussia 0.0:% 

Roumania 60.6% Switzerland 0.03% 

Russia 69.0% Sweden % 

Serbia 78.9% 

United Kingdom 1.0% 

United States, 7.1% population over 10 years Of this, the native 
white population of native parents furnished ^.1% of the illiterates; 
the native white of foreign or mixed parentage, 1.1%. The negroes are 
down with 30.4% illiteracy, less than that of Italy or Greece and sev- 
eral other European States engaged in the task of making the world 
safe for democracy. Even our Indian population (45.3%) shows less 
illiteracy than Greece, Serbia or Roumania. The illiteracy of our 
white foreign-born population is recorded at 12.7%. 

Immigration — How much does the United States owe to immigra- 
tion, as regards the growth of population? Frederick Knapp, worked 
out a table covering the period from 1790 to 1860, the beginning of 
the Civil War, intended to show what the normal white population 
at the close of each decade would have been as a result of only 
the surplus of births over deaths of 1.38 percent each year, compared 
with the result as established by the official census figures. 

"Natural" Growth Census Figures 

1790 3,231,930 

1800 3,706,674 4,412,896 

1810 4,251,143 6,048,450 

132 





"Natural" Growth 


Census Figures 


1820 


4,875,600 


8,100,056 


1830 


5,591,775 


10,796,077 


1840 


6,413,161 


14.582,008 


1850 


7,355,422 


19,987,563 


1860 


8,435,882 


27,489,662 



The natural increase of the white population in 160 years would have 
been only 5,203,952, whereas it was 24,257,732, an increase of 19,053,- 
780 over the natural growth. Statistics show that in 1790 an Ameri- 
can family averaged 5.8; in 1900 but 4.6. During the earlier period 
each family averaged 2.8 children, in 1900 but 1.53, a decline of nearly 
50 per cent. 

Wilhelm Kaufmann ("Die Deutschen im Am. Burgerkriege,") makes 
an ingenious calculation of the value of the immigration of the nine- 
teenth century to the U. S. in dollars and cents. Fifty years ago, he 
says, a human being had a market price. An adult slave about 1855 
was valued at an average of $1,100. Estimating, for the sake of argu- 
ment, a white immigrant at the same price, the 19,500,000 immigrants 
for the stated period would represent a value of '$21,450,000,000; but 
as a white man performed three times as much work as a slave, be- 
sides having a larger claim on life and a much higher intelligence, 
a white immigrant represented four times the value of a slave. 
What value, for instance, was an Ericson to the Union army 
in the summer of 1862, or a Lieber, a Schurz, a Mergenthaler 
or a Carnegie? But 22 percent of the total immigration was made up 
of children under 15 years of age. According to the New York 
Immigration authorities (1870) every German immigrant averaged 
a possession of $150 cash on his arrival, representing a total value, as 
regards German immigration alone, of $750,000,000. A famous Eng- 
lish economist says: "One of the imports of the U. S., that of the 
adult and trained immigrants, would be in an economic analysis un- 
derestimated at £100,000,000 ($500,000,000) a year."— Thorold Rogers, 
Lectures in 1888, "Economic Interpretations of History," (p. 407). 
And the American, James Ford Rhodes (Vol. I, p. 355): "The South 
ignored, or wished to ignore, the fact that able-bodied men with in- 
telligence enough to wish to better their conditions are the most valu- 
able products on earth, and that nothing can redound more to the 
advantage of a new country than to get men without having been 
at the cost of rearing them." 

Because the working conditions in Germany were exceptionally 
favorable, immigration from the German Empire before the war had 
reached by far the smallest stage of that of any of the leading na- 
tions, save France, where the birthrate has been stationary for many 
years. The figures for 1914 were only 35,734, while the immigration 
from Greece was 35,832; Italian immigration in that year reached a 
total of 283.738 a :d from Russia 255,660, while England sent us 

133 



35,864, Scotland 10,682 and Wales 2,183. In 1915 only 7,799 Germans 
arrived, while England sent us 21,562. The money brought by the 
Germans totaled $1,786,130, or $221.50 a head, while money brought 
by the English totaled $3,467,458, a little over $160 a head. 

German immigration was never a pauper immigration and of itself 
refutes the assertion that German immigration was due to fear of mili- 
tary service or political oppression. 

The first German immigration from the Palatinate, 237 years ago, 
was mainly due to the criminal ravages of the French under Louis 
XIV; that of 1848 was incident mainly to the revolution in Baden, 
based upon a longing of all thinking Germans for a united Germany, 
and that of the subsequent period was the spontaneous outpouring of 
an overpopulated country not yet adjusted to commercial and indus- 
trial expansion and the great spread of German enterprise in ship- 
building and manufacture. As soon as this development had reached 
a decisive stage, immigration practically ceased. Those who came 
here obeyed a great economic law by which every man seeks to 
supply an existing vacancy for his industry; they did not come as 
beggars, but were welcomed because they were needed. There v/as 
no religious oppression in Germany, and in Prussia Frederick the 
Great proclaimed in the middle of the eighteenth century the doc- 
trine, *Tn my country every man can serve God in his own way." 
If immigration is an infallible sign of the dissatisfaction of the im- 
migrant with conditions at home which drives him to go to another 
country, the fact that less than 36,000 German immigrants arrived 
in America in 1914 against a total of 73,417 from England, Ireland, 
Scotland and Wales, proves that conditions were vastly better in 
Germany than in the United Kingdom. (The figures are from the 
"New York World Almanac" for 1916.) 

Anthony Arnoux gives the following table of the total German 
immigration into the United States for five years, from 1908 to 1912: 

1908 17,951 

1909 .....19,980 

1910 22,773 

1911 18,900 

1912 13,706 

The latest statistics available, made public in Decernber, 1919, place 
the total number of immigrants arriving at American ports for the 
past 100 years at 33,200,103. 

From Great Britain (including Irish) 24.79"^ 8,206,675 

From Germany, 16.6% 5,494,539 

From Italy, 12.4% 4,100,740 

From Russia, 10% 3,311,400 

From Scandinavia, 6.4% 2,134,414 

For the fiscal year ending in June, 1919, 237,021 immigrants were 
admitted and 8,626 were turned back, a net total of 245,647. During 

134 



the same period 216,231 immigrants left the country. The immigrants 
arriving totaled a per capita wealth of $112, a total of $15,831,247. 
Foreign -born soldiers serving in the army during the war were given 
citizenship to the number of 128,335. 

Indians, Tories and the German Settlements. — The descendants and 
successors of those who form the very foundation of the government 
of the United States, bled and died for its existence, cannot suffer 
themselves to be segregated into a class of tolerated citizens whose 
voices may be silenced at will. The history of the German element is 
too closely interwoven with the records of the past and as an element 
it is too much a part of the bone and muscle of the American nation 
to remain silent when told that the history of the United States is 
to be rewritten and the deeds of their forefathers are to be forgotten 
for the glorification of the Tories who, with their Indian allies, 
burned the homes of German settlers and dragged their women and 
children into captivity. 

A gruesome chapter of their endurance is supplied by the events 
in New York State during the Revolutionary War, and notably those 
events that transpired in the Schoharie and Mohawk valleys. It was 
the German element in New York State which stood the brunt of 
the forages of Joseph Brant, the Indian chief, educated by Sir William 
Johnson and renowned as no other Indian in the history of America 
for his atrocities under the direction of his English and Tory 
patrons. 

He began operations in July, 1778, by surprising a little settlement 
of only seven families at Andrustown, Herkimer County, killing two 
and dragging the women into captivity. It was followed by the 
attack on the German Flats. This was a settlement of nearly 1,000 
souls with about 70 houses, protected by two forts, Fort Dayton and 
Fort Herkimer. The rich harvest of summer had just been gathered 
when Brant invaded the valley. Three of the four scouts sent out to 
report his movements were killed by the Indians; the fourth, John 
Helmer, returned the last day of August, 1778, and reported the ap- 
proach of the enemy. The inhabitants, so far as they were able, fled 
to the protection of the forts with everything movable. With the 
approach of darkness the next day Brant arrived near the forts with 
300 Indians and 152 Tories. He immediately set fire to the abandoned 
houses with their barns, stables and other buildings and drove ofT the 
horses and cattle without daring to attack the forts. The attack re- 
sulted in the destruction of 63 houses, 57 barns, three flour and two 
saw mills, and the loss of 235 horses, 229 head of cattle, 269 sheep 
and 93 oxen. Two men only lost their lives. 

In the Schoharie Valley the summer of 1778 passed without any 
notable events, but the Indians under Brant in June of that year de- 
stroyed Cobelskill. The Indians lured the local company of defenders 
under Captain Braun into an ambush and practically wiped it out. 

135 



No less than 23 of the men were killed, others were seriously wounded 
and only six escaped. The women and children fled into the woods, 
from which they were able to watch the Indians set fire to their 
homes and barns. Brant here did not follow up his success, but re- 
turned to the Susquehanna, where he and his loyalists wrought 
the fearful historic carnage among the settlements in the Wyoming- 
Valley, and in July attacked the Mohawk Valley settlements. 

About this time the Enghsh government offered a prize of $8 for 
every American scalp. In consequence of this barbarous edict, the 
border war, which had so far been mainly conducted between regular 
military forces, degenerated into a series of savage melees. Indians 
and Tories sought to bring in as many scalps as possible, and mur- 
dered children, mothers and old men in order to earn the promised 
reward of eight dollars. More than one German settler found, on 
returning home from his fields in the evening, his family butchered, 
wife and children lying scalped and mutilated in their dwellings or 
in front of their doorsteps, their skulls crushed if the scalping process 
was too slow. Scalping became a recognized industry and was con- 
ducted for business. 

In the evening, after a successful raid, the Indians would stretch 
the scalps on sticks to dry during the night, while the captured rela- 
tives, bound hand and foot, were compelled to witness the revolting 
process, exposed to a similar fate at the least betrayal of grief, or 
doomed to suffer a slow death by torture from fire. 

An entire bundle of dried scalps, amounting to 1,062 in number, 
taken by the Seneca Indians, fell into the hands of a New England 
expedition against the Indians. It was accompanied by a prayer and 
a complete inventory addressed to the British Governor, Handimand. 
There were eight items, as follows: 

Lot 1: 43 scalps of soldiers of Congress killed in battle. 

62 scalps of farmers killed in their houses. 
Lot 2: 92 scalps of farmers killed in their houses surprised by 
day, not by night, as the first lot. The red color, ap- 
plied to the hoops of wood, which were used to stretch 
the scalp, indicated the difference. 
Lot 3: 97 scalps of farmers killed in their fields, different colors 

denoting whether killed with tomahawk or rifle ball. 
Lot 4: 102 scalps of farmers, mostly young men. 
Lot 5: 88 scalps of women, those with blue hoops cut from the 

heads of mothers. 
Lot 6: 193 scalps of boys of different ages killed with clubs or 

hatchets, some with knives or bullets. 
Lot 7: 121 scalps of girls, large and small. 

Lot 8: 122 scalps of various kinds, among them 29 babies' 
scalps, carefully stretched on small white hoops. 
The accompanying prayer was worded as follows: 

Father, we wish that you send these scalps to the Great King 
that he may look at them and be refreshed at their sight — 

136 



recognize our fidelity and be convinced that his presents have 
not been bestowed upon a thankless people. 

it was written by James Crawford (spelled Craufurd), January 3, 
1782, from Tioga, seeming to indicate that most of the scalps came 
from the New York frontier. The information is based on Campbell's 
''Annals of Tryon County," pp. 67-70 (appendix). 

During 1779 the Schoharie and Mohawk valleys were not molested. 
In order to punish the Indians for their atrocities in the Wyoming 
Valley, as well as the western part of New York, Washington had 
induced Congress to fit out an expedition against the Indians under 
Sullivan. In August, 1779, General Sullivan and his aide. General 
Clinton, invaded the valley with 5,000 men, m.oved against the Six 
Nations and devastated their territory, crushing them August 29 at 
Newjion, near Elmira, and pursuing them as far as the Genessee Valley, 
where he destroyed more than forty of their villages. The lack of 
provisions drove the Indians and their Tory friends into Canada, 
where they remained quiescent until 1780. 

But Sullivan's course had lacked the requisite energy and, while 
they had suffered severely, the Indians were by no means discouraged, 
but, on the contrary, filled with bitter resentment, and as early as 
the spring of 1780 they reappeared in New York and resumed their 
former raids. 

On April 3 they surprised Riemenschneider's Bush, a few miles 
north of Little Falls, burned the flour mill and carried off nineteen 
prisoners, among them John Windecker, George Adler, Joseph Neu- 
mann and John Garter. The latter died from mistreatment; the others 
were taken to Canada, but released when peace was restored. 

During a scouting expedition commanded by Lieutenant Wood- 
worth of Fort Dayton *the Americans came into contact with Indians 
double their number. A fierce hand to hand conflict ensued and only 
15 of the Germans escaped; several were taken prisoners and Wood- 
worth fell with more than half his men, who were later buried in a 
common grave on the spot. 

This encouraged the Indians to new atrocities, as this style of 
warfare was most to their liking. No settler was henceforth safe 
from surprise and attack; he slept with his gun beside him and at 
the least sound bounded from his bed to be prepared and to sell his 
life at least as dearly as possible. Now and then more extensive raids 
occurred. Brant was the soul and inspiration of every enemy move- 
ment. His real purposes were always disguised by skilful manouvers. 
His spies were everywhere and he was always well informed of every- 
thing going on in the valley. He would pretend to attack one place 
while, in reality, reserving his blow for another, thus keeping the 
settlers in a constant state of terror and doubt. 

In this manner he learned, toward the end of July, 1780, that 
General Clinton had sent the troops in Canajoharie to Fort Schuyler 

137 



for the protection of the stored supplies at that place, and on August 2, 
at the head of 500 Indians and Tories, suddenly hurled himself upon 
Canajoharie and instituted a perfect bloodpath. No effective resistance 
could be rendered, as the entire male population capable of bearing 
arms was absent. Sixteen men remained dead where they had fallen, 
60 women and children were taken prisoners, the church, 63 houses, 
with their barns and stables, were reduced to ashes, upward of 300 
cattle were killed or driven off. All the agricultural implements and 
tools were lost, so that the survivors were even prevented from gather- 
ing their crops ripening in the fields. The fate of Canajoharie was 
impending over the heads of every other settlement, and nowhere 
was there the least hope of assistance or the least prospect of peace 
and quiet. 

It would be tiresome to enumerate the many Indian attacks on 
German settlers in the valley, and these examples out of innumerable 
instances of heroic deeds (see "Schell") performed by our German 
ancestors must suffice. 

The frontier history of our country abounds in such examples down 
to the period of the Civil War, when the Germans of New Ulm, Minne- 
sota, again, practically for the last time as settlers, were exposed 
to Indian massacres in their march to extend our far-flung battle line 
of civilization into the regions of the primeval wilderness. This bor- 
der history is dominated by the names of the German, Dutch and 
English race. No Frenchmen, Russians, Italians or any of the races 
of southwestern Europe have any share in the reduction of the forests 
and prairies to the spirit of American sovereignty. French and 
Spanish settlements remained always a thing apart with never dimin- 
ishing attachments to Europe, and before and after the Revolution 
the French were our enemies. 

Inventions. — Among the many evidences of German moral and in- 
tellectual obliquity cited to justify our indignation was their lack 
of inventive genius, Prof. Brander Matthews in particular alleging 
that the Germans had contributed nothing to making possible the auto- 
mobile, the aeroplane, the telephone, the submarine, the art of photo- 
graphy, etc. 

The aeroplane, the automobile and the submarine were each made 
possible by the invention of the gas engine, and the gas engine was 
invented by Gottlieb Daimler. By combining Lillienthal's "glider" 
with Daimler's gas engine, the aeroplane became feasible. The first 
employment of the modern gas engine was by Daimler in running a 
motorcycle. 

Wilhelm Bauer, a Bavarian corporal, in 1850 constructed a sub- 
mersible craft at Kiel, which though it eventually came to grief, was 
practically operated and served to spread terror in the Danish navy, 
which discreetly withdrew from its blockading operations. It was 
equipped with torpedoes but was navigated by manual operation, no 

138 



other power being available at that early period. (Boston Transcript.) 
The first man to speak over a wire with the aid of electric power 
and to call his instrument a "telephone," was Philipp Reis, of Frank- 
fort. In 1868 the inventor wrote as follows: "Incited thereto by my 
lessons in physics in the year 1860, I attacked a work begun much 
earlier concerning the organs of hearing, and soon had the joy of 
seeing my pains rewarded with success, since I succeeded in invent- 
ing an apparatus by which it is possible to make clear and evident 
the functions of the organs of hearing, but with which one can also 
reproduce tones of all kinds at any desired distance by means of the 
galvanic current. I named the instrument 'telephone.' " In Man- 
chester, before the Literary and Philosophical Society, Reis' telephone 
was shown in 1865 by Professor Cliften. The invention was however 
too soon for the world. To Reis' great disappointment, the Physical 
Society of Frankfort took no further notice of the invention, the 
luster of which shone upon them. Other societies treated it as a 
scientific toy. The Naturalists' Assembly, including all the leading 
scientific men of Germany, had, indeed, welcomed him at Giesen; but 
too late. His sensitive temperament had met with too many rebufifs, 
and the fatal disease with which he was already stricken told upon 
his energies. In 1873 he disposed of all his instruments and tools to 
Garnier's Institute. To Herr Garnier he made the remark that he had 
shown the world the way to a great invention which must now be left 
to others to develop. On January 14, 1874, he was released by death. 
In December, 1878, a monument was erected to him in the cemetery 
of Friedricksdorf with the inscription under a medallion por- 
trait: "Here rests Philipp Reis, born January 7, 1834; died January 
14, 1874. To its deserving member, the Inventor of the Telephone, by 
the Physical Society of Frankfort-on-Main. Erected 1878." (See 
"Philipp Reis, Inventor of the Telephone; a Biographical Sketch with 
Documentary Testimony, Translation of the Original Papers of the 
Inventor and Contemporaneous Publications," by Sylvanus Thompson, 
B. A. DSc, Professor of Experimental Physics in University College, 
Bristol.) 

The first modern photographic lens was invented by J. Petzval, of 
Vienna; the rectilinear lens by Steinheil; the Jena glass and anastig- 
matic lens by Abbe and Schott, of Jena, Prussia. 

English View of Paul Jones. — In the process of rewriting the 
history of the United States, as now in progress, in what light will 
American school children be taught to regard their great naval hero, 
John Paul Jones, whose remains in a Paris cemetery were exhumed 
about twenty years ago by order of our government and brought back 
to America with all the solemn pomp paid to the greatest of men? 
England's estimate of him is evidenced by clippings of the contem- 
porary English press, which Don C. Seitz a few years ago compiled 
into "Paul Jones, His Exploits in English Seas." It contains clip- 

139 



pings of three types: first, slanders on Jones' personal character; 
secondly, false reports as to his activities and capture; thirdly, edi- 
torial comment in which political morals are deduced or the conse- 
quences of his raids are touched upon. 

In the first category come such passages as the following: 

"Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser," May 8, 1778: 
The captain of the Ranger, John Paul, was some time ago master 
of a vessel called the John, belonging to Kirkudbright, Stood a 
trial in London for the murder of his carpenter and was found 
guilty, but made his escape. 
This is the seed, evidently, from which grew the following tale: 

"Morning Post and Daily Advertiser," Thursday, September 
30, 1779: Paul Jones, or John Paul, which is his real name, is 
a man of savage disposition. He was for many years a comman- 
der of a coasting vessel, in which time he committed many 
barbarities upon his crew — one of which will forever stamp his 
character as a dark assassin. Between Whitehaven and Bristol 
he took a deep dislike to one of his crew and meditated revenge, 
which he performed as follows: One evening upon deck he be- 
haved with more than common civility toward him, and calling 
him aside to do something of the ship's duty, the unsuspecting 
man went, when Jones desired him to lay hold of a rope which 
was out of reach; Jones then desired him to stand on a board 
(the board having been so balanced that a small weight would 
overturn it), which he did, when he fell into the sea and was 
drowned. . . . Thus he got rid of an innocent man without 
being suspected of murder." 

This story was repeated in a number of other papers with suitable 
variations, and once, on the authority of a "reliable lady of our 
acquaintance," the then equivalent of our "reliable, well-informed 
sources." Soine of the news sheets accuse him, inoreover, of being 
the son of a gardener, of owing his watchmaker money for several 
years, of knocking down his schoolmaster with a club, of cold-blood- 
edly sinking a boat-load of deserters with solid shot; of cowardice in 
refusing to fight a duel; of dishonesty in money matters; of "conceal- 
ing a quantity of lead in his clothes to sink himself, should he be 
overcome by the English," 

Jefferson on English Hyphenates and English Perfidy. — Thomas 
Jefferson to Horatio Gates, Pennsylvania: "Those who have no wish 
but for the peace of their country and its independence of all foreigi- 
influence have a hard struggle indeed, overwhelmed by a cry as loud 
and imposing as if it were true, of being under French influence, and 
this raised by a faction composed of English subjects residing among 
us, or such as are English in all their relations and sentiments. How- 
ever, patience will bring all to rights, and we shall both live to see the 
mask taken from their faces and our citizens be made sensible o:i 
which side true liberty and independence are sought." 

Thomas Jefferson to John 'Langdon, the Governor of New Hamp- 
shire: "But the Anglo-men, it seems, have found out a much safer 

140 



means than to risk chances of death or disappointment. That is that 
we should first let England plunder us, as she has been doing for years, 
and then ally ourselves with her and enter into the war. This, indeed, 
is making us a mighty people and what is to be our security, that when 
embarked for her in the war she will not make a separate peace, and 
leave us in the lurch. Her good faith! The faith of a nation of 
merchants! The PUNCIA FIDES of modern Carthage! Of the friend 
and protectress of Copenhagen! Of a nation which never admitted 
the chapter of morality in her political code and is now avowing that 
whatever she can make hers, is hers by right! Aloney and not 
morality is the principle of commerce and commercial nations. But 
in addition to this the nature of the English nation forbids of its 
reliance upon her engagements and it is well known that she has been 
the least faithful to her alliances of all nations of Europe, since the 
period of her history wherein she has been distinguished for her com- 
merce and corruption and that is to say, under the Houses of Stewart 
and Brunswick." 

Jefferson's Tribute to German Immigration. — From Thomas Jeffer- 
son's letter to Gov. Claiborne: "Of all foreigners I should prefer 
Germans." 

"Kultur" in Brief Statistical Form. — A brief statistical abstract of 
comparative data which vitally illustrates German "kultur" before the 
war, has been compiled by D. Trietsch and published by Lehmann of 
Munich under the title of "Germany: A Statistical Stimulant." 

Basis of Comparison Germany England France 

Standard of civilization: 

Illiterates among every 10,000 recruits. 2 100 320 

Expenditure for education in million 

dollars 219 96 65.25 

Books published (1912) 34,800 12,100 9,600 

Noble prizes for scientific achievements 14 3 3 

Economy and public intercourse: 

Grain harvest in million tons 25.8 6.10 16.6 

Production of wheat in hectares 23.6 21.0 13.3 

Potato harvest in million tons 54.0 6.8 16.7 

Foreign trade (not including colonies), 

in million dollars 2.51 1.71 1.18 

Post offices, in thousands, 1912 51.2 24.5 14.6 ' 

Telephones, in thousands, 1912 1310 7Z2, 304 

State of prosperity, etc.: 

Public wealth, in billion dollars, 1914 . . 53.75 86.25 61.25 

Annual income in billion dollars 10.75 8.75 6.25 

Saving bank deposits, in billion dollars, 

1911 4,475 1,175 1,125 

Aver, savings bank deposits, in dollars 200 82.25 78 

Taxes, dollars, per capita 10 18.25 20 

141 



Basis of Comparison Germany England France 

State of peace and amount of armament: 
Number of years of war between 1800 

and 1896 12 21 21 

Expenditure for armament in 1913, in 

dollars, per capita 5.46 8,26 7.46 

Knobel, Caspar. — It was Caspar Knobel, a German-Ahierican, 
eighteen years of age, who, in command of a detachment of fourteen 
men of the Fourth Michigan Cavalry, arrested President Jefiferson 
Davis of the Southern Confederacy, near Abbeville, Ga., and it was a 
German-American, Maj. August Thieman, who was in command of 
Fortress Monroe while Mr. Davis was confined there. Knobel, after 
two days' march without food, discovered the camp of the Confederate 
leader, and, throwing back the flap of his tent, placed him under arrest. 
He received a part of the reward offered by the Union for President 
Davis' capture, and was given a gold medal. (Washington "Herald," 
May 10, 1908.) Maj. August Thieman died at Valentine, Nebr., in utter 
destitution. He had served as an enlisted man and officer continuously 
for over forty-two years. His record, on file in the War Department, 
shows that he took active part in 242 battles, and was wounded seven - 
times. He served in the United States, Mexico, Egypt, and other 
places, and held autograph letters from, and was well acquainted with 
Lincoln, Davis and Stonewall Jackson. It was Gov. Thieman who was 
in charge of Fortress Monroe while Mr. Davis and his family were 
prisoners there. 

Know Nothing or American Party. — A political party which came 
into prominence in 1853. Its fundamental principle was that the gov- 
ernment of the country should be in the hands of native citizens. At 
first it was organized as a secret oath bound fraternity; and from their 
professions of ignorance in regard to it, its members received the 
name of Know Nothings. In 1856 it nominated a presidential ticket, 
but disappeared about 1859, its Northern adherents becoming Repub- 
licans, while most of its Southern members joined the short-lived 
Constitutional Union party. It was preceded by the Native American 
party, formed about 1842, an organization based on hostility to the par- 
ticipation of foreign immigrants in American politics, and to the Ro- 
man Catholic Church. In 1844 it carried the city elections in New 
York and Philadelphia, and elected a number of Congressmen. It 
disappeared within a few years, after occasioning destructive riots 
against Catholics in Philadelphia and other places. In St. Louis a 
Know Nothing mob, led by E. C. Z. Judson ("Ned Buntline"), at- 
tempted to destroy Turner Hall, the German Athletic Club, but was 
easily repelled by a group of resolute Germans, who guarded the ap- 
proaches by stationing guns at the four street corners and riflemen 

142 



on top of the adjacent houses. T. W. Barnes, in his life of Thurlow 
Weed, writes: "If a member of the order was asked about its practices, 
he answered that he knew nothing about them, and 'Americans' for 
that reason soon came to be called Know Nothings!" 

Koerner, Gustav. — One of the most conspicuous fighters in the Civil 
War period, "whose important life is well documented," Prof. A. B. 
Faust, of Cornell University, says, "in his two-volume memoirs. They 
furnish abundant evidence of the fact, well established by recent his- 
torical monographs, that the balance of power securing the election of 
Lincoln, with all its far-reaching consequences, lay with the German 
vote of the Middle West. Koerner's modesty and unselfishness were 
extraordinary. He repeatedly sacrificed his chance for political pre- 
ferment in deference to others less capable, and he surprised his 
political friends at the opening of the war by refusing high military 
rank, because, he said, he had not had the training needed for an 
officer. Koerner was elected lieutenant-governor of the State of 
Illinois, 1853-56, and in 1861 was appointed by Lincoln to succeed 
Schurz as minister to Spain. Koerner had the honor of being one of 
Lincoln's pall-bearers, for few men had been closer to the martyr 
President before the election. Schurz, Koerner and Lieber," declares 
Prof. Faust, "represent at their best, the idealism and independence, 
the honest, unselfish patriotism, and the intelligent action of the Ger- 
mans in American politics. Their existence in American politics had 
not been marked by the holding of many offices, but on great national 
issues their presence has always been strongly felt. In the fact that 
they were not seeking anything for themselves lay their strength, their 
independence and their power for good. The independent voter is the 
despair of the politician and the salvation of the country." 

Kudlich, Dr. Hans, the Peasant Emancipator. — The name of Dr. 
Hans Kudlich has been coupled with that of Abraham Lincoln as 
"the great emancipator." Through measures carried by him through 
the Austrian Parliament, attended with revolutionary outbreaks, vio- 
lence and bloodshed — he himself being wounded in the struggle — 
14,000,000 Austrian peasants were finally relieved from serfdom. Dr. 
Kudlich fled to the United States in 1854 and died at Hobokon, N. J., 
November 11, 1917, aged 94. 

He "was born in Lohenstein, Austrian Silesia, October 23, 1823. 
He studied jurisprudence at the University of Vienna and joined the 
sudents' revolutionary movement, and, failing to secure consideration 
for a petition for the freedom of the press, of religion and of speech, 
he participated in the students' revolt in 1848 against Metternich. The 
government's draft of a constitution aflfording no satisfaction, the 
Academic Legion and the workmen marched under arms and forced 
the suspension of the constitution and of the popular assembly. He 

143 



was sent as delegate to the first Austrian Parliament when still under 
25 years of age after being severely wounded. 

In his three-volume "Memoirs and Reviews," published in Vienna 
in 1873, he describes the peasant as simply without rights, bound to 
the soil — half serfs — ruled by nobles who were nearly free to do with 
them as they liked, compelled to work on their landlord's estates with- 
out wages three days a week, boarding themselves and furnishing 
their own implements, horses, wagons, plows and other tools. Added 
to this were countless interests, money and titles, all of which were 
paid by the poor peasant to his rich master. The heirs of a peasant 
who died had to pay to the landlord 10 per cent of the realized value 
of the farm. On top of this the landlord was at the same time his 
own policeman and court of last resort, with power to incarcerate 
the peasant and even to condemn him to be flogged, while the suffer- 
ing peasants were further subjected to the assessment of tithes by 
the church and to payment of taxes to the communes, road improve- 
ments and quartering of troops. 

"In near-by Prussia," he writes, "those oppressive measures had long 
been abolished. Looking across the border, the Austrian peasants of 
Silesia became still more clearly conscious of their degradations." 

His first parliamentary act was to introduce a 'bill to abolish invol- 
untary servitude. It was debated six weeks in open session, but in 
the end a fully satisfactory law was passed and approved by the 
Emperor. 

The bold course of the young parliamentarian created a sensation 
throughout Austria, and a colossal ovation to the "peasant emanci- 
pator" was instituted in Vienna, taking the form of a torchlight pro- 
cession with twenty-four deputations of peasants from all parts of 
Austria participating. 

A new revolutionary movement was soon inaugurated because of 
the course of the government toward Hungary. In the riots Count 
Latour, the Minister of War, was brutally murdered and the ungovern- 
able populace scored a temporary victory until Vienna was invested 
and taken by Field Marshal Windischgraetz. Kudlich's attempt to 
recruit a peasant legion to relieve Vienna ended dismally and led to 
his indictment for high treason^ Parliament was forcibly dissolved 
and Kudlich fled to Germany, where he was joined by one of his 
confederates, Oswald Ottendorfer. The young revolutionist was re- 
ceived with open arms by the revolutionary party of Baden, and he 
was appointed secretary to the Minister of Justice, Fries. Here he 
made the acquaintance of his later friends, Carl Schurz and Franz 
Sigel. The revolution failed and Dr. Kudlich, with the remainder of 
Sigel's Baden army, fled to Switzerland. Here he remained four years, 
studying medicine, but even here the long arm of the Austrian reac- 
tionary government reached him, and, being ordered by the Swiss 

144 



government to leave the country, he came to the United States and 
at Hoboken established a lucrative practice. He was active in politics 
and an outspoken abolitionist before the Civil War, but never ac- 
cepted an office. 

Repeatedly he revisited his old home across the sea; first in 1872, 
after the passage of the amnesty act of 1867, on which occasion he 
was received with princely ovations in many cities. Everywhere pains 
were taken to commemorate his service as the peasant emancipator 
by monuments and other evidences of the respect and love with which 
he was regarded. 

Langlotz, Prof. C. A. — Composer of famous Princeton College song, 
"Old Nassau," one of the songs of which it is said that they will never 
die, and sung by fifty-four Princeton classes. Was born in Germany, 
the son of a court musician at Saxe-Meiningen. Prof. Langlotz came 
to the United States in 1856, already a distinguished musician, opened a 
studio in Philadelphia, and later became instructor of German at 
Princeton. He composed "Old Nassau" in 1859. Died at Trenton, 
N. J., November 25, 1915. 

Lehman, Philip Theodore. — Born in the electorate of Saxony, emi- 
grated to this country and became one of the secretaries of William 
Penn; and in that capacity wrote the celebrated letter to the Indians 
of Canada, dated June 23, 1692, the original of which is framed and 
hung up in the Capitol at Harrisburg. 

Lehmann, Frederick William. — Solicitor General of the United 
States, December, 1910-12, and prominent lawyer, resident of St. Louis. 
Born in Prussia, February 28, 1853. Government delegate and chair- 
man committee on plan and scope Universal Congress of Lawyers 
and Jurists, St. Louis, 1904; chairman commissions on congresses and 
anthropology, Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company; president St. 
Louis Public Library, 1900-10; chairman Board of Freeholders City of 
St. Louis; president American Bar Association; second vice president 
Academy of Jurisprudence. 

Leisler, Jacob. — The first American rebel against the British misrule 
in America to die for his principles. When the people of the Colonies 
heard of the revolution in England, they at once made movements to 
regain law and freedom. In New York, on May 31, 1689, Jacob 
Leisler a (German) Commissioner of the Court of Admiralty, took the 
fort on Manhattan Island, declared for the Prince of Orange, and 
planted six cannon within the fort, from which the place was ever 
afterwards called "The Battery." A committee of safety was formed 
which invested Leisler with the powers of a governor. When, how- 
ever, a dispatch arrived from the authorities of Great Britain, directed 

145 



to "such person as, for the time being, takes care for preserving the 
peace and administering the laws in his majesty's province in New 
York," Leisler, considering himself governor, dissolved the Committee 
of Safety and organized the government throughout the whole 
province. There was division among the New Yorkers. The minority, 
being mostly the English aristocracy, were against Leisler; but the 
people in great majority were in sympathy with him. It was the old 
conflict between the few and the many, with "all the people" silre to 
win in the end. . . . Jacob Leisler was probably among the first of 
far-sighted men to see the necessity of union against the French. . . . 
To him, the importance of a federation of all the colonies seemed vital. 
After vainly trying to get other governors to unite with him, Leisler, 
early in 1690, sent a small fleet against Quebec. 

From the very first New York was infested with that sentiment for 
unison which she has shown in all political disturbances and wars 
throughout all her history. Very appropriately, on her soil, was held 
the first Congress to propose an elaborate plan of union. ... A hard- 
drinking Englishman, named Sloughter, was appointed the royal gov- 
ernor of New York. On his arrival Leisler refused to surrender the 
fort and government, until convinced that Sloughter was the regularly 
appointed agent of the King. Those who hated Leisler seized this 
opportunity of having him and Milborne, his son-in-law, imprisoned. 
After a short and absurd trial, they were condemned, and the gov- 
ernor, when drunk, signed an order of execution. On May 16, 1691, 
Leisler and Milborne were hanged on the spot east of the Park in 
New York City where stands the "Tribune" building, opposite which 
are the statues of Benjamin Franklin and Nathan Hale, and near 
which the figure of Leisler may yet come to resurrection in bronze. 
The outrageous act of the King was disapproved. In 1695, by an act 
of Parliament, Leisler's name was honored, indemnity was paid to 
his heirs, and the remains of these victims of judicial murder were 
honorably buried within the edifice of the Reformed Dutch Church. 
No unprejudiced historian can but honor Leisler, the lover of union, 
and the champion of the people's rights. ("The Romance of Amer- 
ican Colonization," by William Elliot Griffis, D. D.) 

A bust of Leisler was unveiled a few years ago at New Rochelle, 
N. Y., as Governor Leisler had given welcome to the French refugees 
coming to New York, and made provision for them by purchasing 
land at New Rochelle. Leisler sought in 1690 to do what Benjamin 
Franklin tried to accomplish in 1740 toward a union of the colonies 
for mutual protection. 

Benson J. Lossing calls Leisler "the first martyr to the democratic 
faith of America." 

Lieber, Francis. — One of the most distinguished German Americans 
of the Civil War period, was born in Berlin in 1793, and as a school- 

146 



boy enlisted under Bliicher and participated in the battle of Ligny, 
which immediately preceded the battle of Waterloo, and was wounded, 
returning home to resume his work as a schoolboy. Studied at Jena, 
Halle and Dresden, and taking part in public movements which were 
characterized as dangerous, was twice arrested, and at twenty-one 
took part in the Greek struggle. He left Germany in 1825 and spent 
a year in England, after which he came to the United States. After 
passing a short time in Boston, he went to Philadelphia, where he 
engaged in the preparation of the "Encyclopedia Americana," modeled 
upon "Brockhau's Conversations Lexikon"; it was published in Phila- 
delphia. After preparing an elaborate scheme for the management of 
Girard College, he engaged on independent authorship, went to the 
University of South Carolina in 1835 as Professor of History and 
Political Economy, and there wrote and taught until 1857, when he 
gladly left the South. 

At the outbreak of the Civil War he was quietly settled at Columbi i 
College in New York, but one of his sons entered the Confederate 
service, another joined the Illinois troops in the Union army, and a 
third was given a commission in the regular army, while he himself 
began the work of legal adviser to the Government on questions of 
military and international law. In this capacity he prepared a code 
of instructions for the government of the armies of the United States 
in the field, and thenceforth was in constant employment in that 
direction, putting his vast store of learning at the disposal of the 
authorities on every fitting occasion. Although at an earlier period 
he had written in a somewhat disparaging tone of the aims and status 
of the German Americans, he saw that his apprehensions were at 
fault, as some 200,000 German-born Americans and above 300,000 Ger- 
man Americans of the second and third generations served in the 
Union Army. 

He maintained a close correspondence with the leading German 
professors, Bluntschli, Mohl and Holtzendorff, and did much to secure 
in Germany a proper- appreciation of the great work done for 'the 
world by securing the perpetuation of the American Union, and later 
on to make America alive to the merits of the struggle with France 
which secured German unity. His busy life ended in 1872. 

His services, says one biographer, were of a kind not often within 
the reach and range of a single life, and his memory deserves to be 
honored and kept green in both his native and his adopted country. 
He was well represented on the battlefields for the Union by his two 
sons, Hamilton, who served in the 92nd Illinois, and died in 1876, an 
officer in the regular army, and Guido, who long after perpetuated 
Lieber's name in the register of the regular army institution. The 
death of another son on the Confederate side was another sacrifice 
to the Union cause. 

147 



His "Instructions for the Armies in the Field," General Order No. 
100, published by the government of the United States, April 24, 1863, 
was the first codification of international articles of war, and marked 
an epoch in the history of international law and of civilization, says 
Rosengarten, and his contributions to military and international law, 
published at various times during the Civil War, together with his 
other miscellaneous writings on political science, were reprinted in two 
volumes of his works, issued by J. B. Lippincott & Co., in 1881, and 
these, with his memoirs and the tributes paid him by President Oilman 
and Judge Thayer, are his best monuments. A memoir by T. S. Perry 
also deserves attention. 

Light Horse Harry Lee. — Delivered the famous eulogy on Washing- 
ton, in which occur the words, "First in peace, first in war, and first in 
the hearts of his countrymen," Dec. 27, 1799, in the German Lutheran 
Church in Philadelphia. (Representative Acheson of Pennsylvania.) 

Lincoln of German Descent. — For some years a very interesting 
discussion has been going on among historians as to the ancestry of 
President Lincoln. Some claim that he was of English descent and 
others that his forebears were German. Each disputant gives facts to 
uphold his theory and is unconvinced by the other, so that the dis- 
cussion is not yet closed. 

When Lincoln became a candidate for President, one Jesse W. Fell 
prepared his campaign biography. When he asked Lincoln for detail? 
as to his ancestors he received this reply: "My parents were born in 
Virginia of undistinguished families — second families, perhaps I should 
say. My parental grandfather emigrated from Rockingham County, 
Va., to Kentucky, about 1781 or 1782. His ancestors, who were 
Quakers, went to Virginia from Berks County, Pennsylvania, An ef- 
fort to identify them with the New England family of the same name 
ended in nothing more definite than a similarity of Christian names 
in which both families, such as Enoch, Levi, Mordecai, Solomon, 
Abraham, etc." ,'> ! ^i^ 

Nicolay and Hay, who were secretaries to the President and inti- 
mate with him, published an extensive biography in 1890. Prof, M. D. 
Learned, editor of the German-American Annals, made a special study 
of the subject, and published the results in 1910. Both of these au- 
thorities uphold the English descent. L. P. Hennighausen, of Balti- 
more, is the leading advocate of the German descent. 

Both parties agree that the grandfather of the President was also 
named Abraham; that he came from Rockingham County, Va., to 
Kentucky; that his father, John, came to Virginia from Berks County, 
Pennsylvania; and that these ancestors were Quakers, or non-com- 
batants. Grandfather Abraham bought 400 acres in Kentucky, and on 
his Land Warrant in 1780, and also in the Surveyor's Certificate in 
1785, the name is spelled "Linkhorn" in each instance. 

The first named biographers claim that John's father was Mordecai, 

14S 



who came from Hingham, Mass., to Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 
1725. His father was Samuel Lincoln, who emigrated from England 
in 1635, and settled in the above named New England town. The 
descendants of this family spread over New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. The German name "Linkhorn" is 
brushed aside as the blunder of a clerk. 

The argument for a German ancestry does not go so far back in 
genealogy, and bases itself more on geography and spelling. It so 
happens that Berks County and Rockingham County were solid Ger- 
man settlements. In the Pennsylvania county the German dialect is 
still in general use, and the "Reading Adler," a German newspaper 
established in 1796, was issued until 1913, still being one of the few 
journalistic centenarians in the country. When Washington, as a 
young man, was surveying Rockingham County, "he was attended by 
a great concourse of people, who followed him through the woods and 
would speak none but German." Many of these settlers were non- 
combatants, that is, Quakers or Mennonites. 

That the name "Linkhorn" in the two documents mentioned is not 
a mistake is shown by the fact that in the Surveyor's Certificate is 
the signature, "Abraham Linkhorn." And what is even more puzzling 
and curious, the two witnesses sign as "Josiah Lincoln" and "Hananiah 
Lincoln." A search of Virginia records from 1766 to 1776 shows that 
Clayton Abraham Linkhorn was the youngest officer in the militia, 
-and his name, appearing o^ many different pages, is always spelled 
in that manner. On the census lists and tax lists in Pennsylvania the 
names Benjamin, John, Michael, and Jacob Linkhorn appear, and 
Nicolay and Hay state that in Tennessee and Kentucky the family 
name is also thus spelled. 

This divergence of opinion is not confined to historians, but has 
even innoculated the Lincoln family. Some years ago David J. Lin- 
coln, of Birdsboro, Berks Co., Pa., published a pedigree of the Lincoln 
family. This was at once challenged by Geo. Lincoln, of Hingham, 
Mass., who published a wholly different pedigree. 

The evidence in favor of Lincoln's German descent cannot be 
waved aside as the error of a clerk. The purchaser of a strip of land 
would not expose his title to future legal complications without in- 
sisting on a correction of his name, whereas five years and two months 
elapsed between the issue of the landoffice warrant and the surveyor's 
certificate, in which the alleged error is distinctly duplicated. Again 
the name "Linkhorn" appears under the name of two witnesses spell- 
ing their names "Lincoln," conclusive proof that the distinction was 
a conscious performance and not an accident. A reasonable conclusion 
would be that other members of the family had begun to spell their 
name "Lincoln" instead of "Linkhorn," probably following popular 
use in a community predominantly of English ancestry, as is the case 

149 


















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of so many names in the German counties of Pennsylvania. When 
Koester is anglicised into Custer, Hauk into Hawke, Reyer into Royer, 
Greims into Grimes and Brauer into Brower, as evidenced by many 
tombstones of lond-dead ancestors, it is a most plausible inference 
that the same process evolved "Lincoln" from "Linkhorn." 

A bit of interesting collateral evidence in favor of the Linkhorn 
hypothesis is supplied the editor of the present book by Mrs. 'G. W. 
Garvey, who resided in Hoboken, N. J., until 1919, w^hen she removed 
to California. Mrs. Garvey's maiden name was Bennett. Her grand- 
parents resided in close proximity to the family of the Lincolns in 
Illinois. Her grandmother, Mrs. Dameron, often spoke of the Lin- 
colns as neighbors who were referred to as "Dutch" people, "because 
the Lincolns were in the habit of killing a hog in the fall and making 
sausages and sauerkraut," which were among the delicacies exchanged 
among their neighbors and friends, a typical German custom. 

Leutze, Eugene Henry Cozzens. — Rear Admiral, U. S. N., born in 
Dusseldorf, Germany, 1847. Appointed to U. S. Naval Academy by 
President Lincoln, 1863; graduated 1867. While on leave of absence 
from academy volunteered on board "Monticello" on N. Atlantic 
Squadron in 1864. Served on numerous surveys, at Naval Academy, 
1886-90; Washington Navy Yard, 1892-96; commander "Michigan," 
"Alert," "Monterey," and participated in taking city of Manila; com- 
mandant Navy Yard, Cavite, P. L, 1898-1900; sup't naval gun factory, 
Washington, 1900-02; commander "Maine," then member Board of In- 
spection and Survey; then commandant Navy Yard, Washington, and 
sup't naval gun factory; retired by operation of law, Nov. 16, 1909, 
but continued on active duty; commandant Navy Yard and Station, 
New York, 1910. 

Long, Francis L. — Was a sergeant in Custer's command. On the 
day before the massacre, Long volunteered to carry a message from 
Gen. Custer through the Indian lines to Major Reno, calling for help. 
Long got through and Reno moved, but camped at night, and thus 
failed to save the heroic command. Long was the first trooper to 
arrive on the scene of the massacre. He was also one of the six 
survivors of the ill-fated Greely arctic expedition. The New York 
"Sun" said of him the day after his death, June 8, 1916.: 

His Viking constitution and an utter absence of nervousness 
rendered him almost impervious to the ills of most explorers put 
on a short diet in a desolate land. He became the hunter of the 
Greely party, and it was chiefly through him that the com- 
mander himself was saved. He never tired of adventure, making 
several Arctic trips after his first hazardous polar experiment, 
the last being when he was past 50. Except Rear Admiral 
Peary, it is said he spent more time north of the Arctic circle 
than any other white man. 

152 



For the last dozen or more years Sergeant Long had charge 
of the local weather bureau at night, making up the chart and 
telling the newspapers what folks hereabouts might expect next 
day. He was an expert meteorologist and frequently made better 
local predictions than his superiors at Washington. 

Born at Wurtemburg, Germany. Came to the U.^.ited States as a 
boy and entered the army at 18. 

Ludwig, Christian. — Purveyor of the Revolutionary Army. Born in 
Giessen, Germany* 1720; fought in the Austrian army against the 
Turks, and under Frederick the Great against Austria. Sailed the 
oceans tor seven years and settled in Philadelphia in 1754. Served on 
numerous committees during the Revolution, and was popularly called 
the "governor of Latitia Court," where he owned a bakery. When a 
resolution was passed by the Convention of 1776 to raise money for 
arms, and grave doubt was expressed in regard to the feasibility of the 
plan, Ludwig addressed the President of the Convention in these 
words: "Although I am only a poor ginger-bread baker, put me 
down for £200," which silenced all further objection. By a resolution 
of Congress (May 3, 1777), Ludwig was given the contract to supply 
the American army with bread. Here he demonstrated his sterling 
honesty. His predecessors had furnished 100 pounds of bread to 100 
pounds of flour. He declared: "Christoph Ludwig does not intend to 
get rich out of the war; 100 pounds of flour make 135 pounds of 
bread, and I shall furnish that." He was very friendly with Wash- 
ington, and the commander in chief repeatedly entertained him at 
table, calling him his "honest friend." Ludwig bequeathed his not 
inconsiderable fortune to the object of establishing a fund for a free 
school for poor children without distinction as regards religion or 
previous condition. 

Liberty Loan Subscriptions. — The German element passed hero- 
ically the te^t of their loyalty in the amounts subscribed to the 
Third Liberty Loan for the prosecution of the war, and, as usual, 
they far exceeded the record of other racial elements. The Central 
Loan Committee gave out a summary on May 3, 1918, which showed 
the following subscriptions: 

Germans $18,000,000 

Polish 9,500,000 

Bohemians 440,000 

Italians 8,500,000 

Swedish 420,000 

South Slavs 149,000 

Russians 145,000 

Lithuanians 66,500 

Danes 281.000 



15- 



Armenians $ 190,000 

Belgians 700,000 

South Americans 5,825,000 

Chinese • • 31,000 

The subscriptions of the English and French are not given. A 
letter addressed to the Central Committee for a more complete report, 
embodying the subscriptions of all foreign-born citizens, brought the 
reply that the figures were not available, and no comparison is 
therefore possible of the relative amounts given hy the French and 
English-born. 

Ideals of Liberty. — When discussing the question of liberty and the 
ideals of political freedom, it is safer to consult the recognized authori- 
ties on ancient and modern history, famous students of constitutional 
affairs, than to accept the dictum of political opportunists whose 
judgments and pronouncements vary with the shift of the wind. 

The World War over night transfotmed the stupid, slow-going, 
dull-witted German, the "Hans Breitmann" of Leland, and the familiar 
"Fritz and his little dog Schneider," into a world figure of adroitness 
and supernatural finesse in all the arts of deception. From a sodden, 
beer-guzzling, sauerkraut-eating Falstaff, he was suddenly changed 
into a finished product of macchiavelian cleverness, or into a knight 
errant charging around the world to suppress other people's liberty, 
and the embodiment of all that stands for autocracy. 

While we were at war a good deal of this sort of figure painting 
was tolerable; but long before we entered the war, it was dangerous 
for the plain American citizen to express any view that did not de- 
scribe every German as a Hun and Boche. Yet all the time our 
libraries were littered with the Latin classics, with Hume, Montes- 
quieu, Guizot and other famous authors, who actually contradicted 
this verdict of Rudyard Kipling and his followers, and who, we pre- 
sume, may now be safely taken from the shelf and opened without 
exposing one to the risk of being prosecuted for high treason, since 
thy speak rather wxll of our late enemies. 

"Liberty," said the Roman poet Lucanus, "is the German's birth- 
right." "It is a privilege," wrote the Roman historian Florus, "which 
nature has granted to the Germans, and which the Greeks, with all 
their art, knew not how to obtain." Hume, the great English historian, 
says: "If our part of the world maintain sentiments of liberty, honor, 
equity and valor, superior to the rest of mankind, it owes these ad- 
vantages to the seed implanted by those generous barbarians." 
"Liberty," observed Montesquieu, "that lovely thing, was discovered 
in the wild forests of Germany." And Guizot, the French historian 
and statesman, in his "History of Civilization" (Lecture II), makes 
this observation: 

It was the rude barbarians of Germany who introduced this 
sentiment of personal independence, this love of personal liberty, 

154 



into European civilization; it was unknown among the Romans, 
it was unknown in the Christian Church; it was unknown in 
nearly all the civilizations of antiquity. The liberty that we meet 
with in ancient civilizations is political liberty; it is the liberty 
of the citizen. We are indebted for it to the barbarians who in- 
troduced it into European civilization, in which, from its first 
rise it has played so considerable a part and has produced such 
lasting and beneficial results that it must be regarded as one 
of the fundamental principles. 
Mr. Walter S. McNeil tells us that "in some respects the German 
(Constitution) is more democratic than our own," while Professor 
Burgess (author of the standard work, "Political Science and Com- 
parative Constitutional Law") teaches us that "of the three European 
constitutions which we are examining, only that of Germany contains 
in any degree the guarantees of individual liberty which the Constitu- 
tion of the United States so richly affords" (Book II, chapter 1, page 
179, Vol. 1), whereas his opinion of England, as expressed in "The 
European War of 1914," is that "there is no longer a British Constitu- 
tion according to the American idea of constitutional government. 
... In this only true sense of constitutional government, the British 
Government is a despotism . . . The Russian economic and 
political systems have more points of likeness with the British than 
is usually conceived." 

Frank Harris ("England or Germany?" p. 30) writes: "Great Britain 
is among the least free of modern nations. Her chief titles to esteem 
belong to the past." Prof. Yandell Henderson (Yale): "Modern Ger- 
many is as unlike the Germany of Frederick the Great, out of which 
it has developed, as America of to-day is unlike the America of the 
stagecoach." 

Germany cannot be at once the country painted by Mr. Wilson in 
1917 and the country he painted in 1919. In his speech before the 
A. F. of L. convention in November, 1917, he said: 

"All the intellectual men of the world went to school to her. As a 
university man I have been surrounded by men trained in Germany; 
men who have resorted to Germany because nowhere else could they 
get such thorough and searching training, particularly in the principles 
of science and the principles that underlie modern material achieve- 
ment. Her men of science had made her industries perhaps the most 
competent industries of the world, and the label 'Made in Germany' 
was a guarantee of good workmanship and sound material." 

In his address to the French Academy of Moral and Political 
Science, Paris, May 10, 1919, the same speaker said: 

"A great many of my colleagues in American university life got their 
training, even in political science, as so many men in civil circles did, 
in German universities. . . . And it has been a portion of my effort 
to disengage the thought of American university teachers from the 
misguided instruction which they had received on this side of the sea." 

155 



And this is the tribute he pays to Prussia in his chapter on Prussian 
government in his "The State": 

"Prussia has achieved a greater perfection in administrative organ- 
ization than any other European State. . . . The modern Prussian 
constitution is one which may be said to rest on a scientific basis." 

Marix, Adolph — Rear Admiral U. S. N. Born at Dresden, Ger- 
many, 1848. Graduated Naval Academy 1868. Served on various 
European and Asiatic stations; Judge Advocate of "Maine" court of 
inquiry; Captain of port of Manila, 1901-03; commanded "Scorpion" 
during Spanish-American war and was promoted for conspicuous 
bravery; chairman Lighthouse Board, retired May 10, 1910. Died in 
1919. 

Massachusetts Bay Colony Contained Germans. — The first Germans 
in New England arrived, as far as we know, with the founding of 
Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. The proof of this fact, as well 
as the influence of this first small group, is found in one of the most 
important pamphlets published in connection with New England 
colonization, "The Planter's Plea" (1630). This tract, published in 
London shortly after the departure of Winthrop's Puritan fleet, and 
supposed to have been written by John White, the "patriarch of Dor- 
chester," and the "father of Massachusetts Bay Colony," contains 
the following statement: "It is not improbable that partly for their 
sakes, and partly for respect to some Germans that are gone over 
with them, and more that intend to follow after, even those which 
otherwise would not much desire innovation, of themselves yet for 
maintaining of peace and unity (the only solder of a weak, unsettled 
body) will be won to consent to some variations from the forms and 
customs of our church." 

Some of the early New England Germans reached there via New 
Amsterdam; we find them in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Boston, etc. 
In 1661 the ship surgeon, Felix Christian Spoeri, of Switzerland, paid 
a visit to Rhode Island. His narrative of New England ("Ameri- 
kanische Reisebeschreibung Nach den Caribes Inseln und Neu Eng- 
elland") is one of the few of German pen on early American colonial 
times still extant — (From "First Germans in North America and the 
German Element of New Netherland," by Otto Lohr. G. E. Stechert 
& Co., New York, 1912.) 

Massow, Baron Von — Member of Mosby's Men on the Confederate 
side during Civil War. According to a statement of Gen. John vS. 
Mosby, Baron von Massow joined his command on coming to this 
country from Prussia, where he was attached to the general staff; 
was severely wounded in an engagement with a California regiment 
in Fairfax County near Washington, D. C, on which occasion he 
displayed conspicuous gallantry. He was then discharged and re- 
turned to Germany, serving later in the Austro-Prussian and the 
Franco-Prussian wars. The last that Col. Mosby heard of him was 

156 



that he was commanding the Ninth Corps in the German army. 
(From a statement of Gen. Mosby, Feb. 12, 1901.) 

McNeill, Walter S. — Prominent lawyer and law lecturer at Rich- 
mond, Va., discussing the "Burgerliches Gesetzbuch," which is the 
codified common law of Germany, says: 

"As a crystallization of human, not divine, justice, let our lawyers 
compare the German Code with the Federal statutes and decisions, 
or the legislative or judicial law of any of our States. Then we can 
get at something definite, not imaginary, concerning civil liberty in 
Germany. . . . The less said by way of comparing German with 
American criminal law the better." 

Memminger, Christoph Gustav — Secretary of the Treasury in the 
Confederate Cabinet, appointed 1861. Born in Mergentheim, Wur- 
temberg. 

Mergenthaler, Ottmar — Inventor of the Mergenthaler Linotype ma- 
chine, used in almost every printing office throughout the world. 
Born in Wurtemberg, Germany, and arrived in Baltimore in 1872, 
working at his trade of clock and watch manufacturer. The Linotype 
was the result of years of study and experimentation and represents 
as great an advance over hand composition as the sewing machine 
does over the sewing needle. 

Military Establishments of Warring Nations — Germany, occupying 
the third place in population of eight leading powers, stood in the sec- 
ond place in regard to enlistment in her army and navy, behind 
Russia and England, respectively. Her expenditures for maintaining 
the armed force, however, were surpassed by those of England, Rus- 
sia and France, and in the case of the navy, by those of the United 
States as well. The per capita cost of her armaments was $4.54, 
while that of France was $7.91 and that of England $9.97, or twice 
the capita expenditure of Germany. The following table gives a 
comparison of population and enlistment in army and navy of eight 
of the leading countries: ( E. Dallmer). 



Population 

England 45,000,000 

Russia 160,100,000 

France 39,300,000 

Germany 64,900,000 

United States 94,800,000 

Italy 33,900,000 

Austria-Hungary 49,400,000 

Japan 52,200,000 





Enlistment 




(Peace strength) 


Army 


Navy 


254,500 


137,500 


1,290,000 


52,463 


720,000 


60,621 


810,000 


66,7%?^ 


89,000 


64,780 


250,000 


33.095 


390,000 


17,581 


250,000 


51,0^4 



157 



The estimated expenditure for the year 1913-14 was as follows: 

Army Navy Total Per Capita 

England $224,300,000 $224,140,000 $448,440,000 $9.97 

Russia 317,800,000 122,500,000 440,300,000 2.75 

France 191,431,580 119,571,400 311,002,980 7.91 

Germany 183,090,000 111,300,000 294,390,000 4.54 

United States .. 94,266,145 140,800,643 235,066,788 3.30 

Italy 82,928,000 51,000,000 133,928,000 3.95 

Austria-Hungary 82,300.000 42,000,000 124,300,000 2.52 

Japan 49,000,000 46,500,000 95,500,000 1.85 

Germany maintained a navy larger than that of the United States 
and a standing army of 810,000, at an expense of but $1.24 per capita 
more than that of the United States with a standing army of 75,000. 
In addition the United States is burdened with a pension system in- 
volving large expenditures. 

Under President Wilson the United States in peace outstripped the 
great military powers of the world in militarism, and the 64th Con- 
gress passed bills appropriating a larger sum of money for army 
and navy purposes than Germany did in anticipation of being attacked 
by a coalition of France, England, Russia and Japan, as will appear 
from the following table of comparative appropriations: 

United States, 1917 $294,565,623 

Germany, 1914 294,390,000 



$ 175,623 



Minuit, or Minnewit, Peter — Director General of the New Nether- 
lands, purchased the island of Manhattan, the present site of New 
York City, from the Indians for 60 guldens. Born in Wesel on the 
lower Rhine. According to a report of Pastor Michaelis, who opened 
the first divine service in the Dutch language in New Amsterdam in 
1623, Peter Minuit acted as deacon of the Reformed Church in Wesel 
and accepted a similar assignment in the newly founded church of 
Manhattan. Later entered the service of Sweden, and in 1637 com- 
manded an expedition which founded New Sweden in the Delaware 
River region near Cape Henlopen and Christian Creek. (See "Dutch 
and German.") 

Morgan, J. Pierpont — American banker and financier, appointed by 
the British Government to look after British interests in America 
and known as "Great Britain's ammunition agent." In a speech in 
Parliament, Lloyd George stated that D. A. Thomas would "co-oper- 
ate with Messrs. Morgan & Co., the accredited agents of the British 
Government." Morgan floated the famous Russian rubel and $500,- 
000,000 English-French loans and was the chief promoter of the arms 

158 



and ammunition industry to supply the Allies. The trade in muni- 
tions before we entered the war was upward of two billion dollars, 
of which the Morgan interests received 2 per cent., or $40,000,000 
in commissions, exclusive of large additional profits from the com- 
panies engaged in the manufacture of munitions in which he and his 
friends were interested. Under a just construction of neutrality, for 
Morgan to act against a friendly power under a commission from ? 
foreign government would subject him to arrest under a specific 
statute of the United States. His niece, nee Burns, is the wife of 
First Viscount Lewis Harcourt of Nuneham Park,, Oxford. 

Missouri, How Kept in the Union. — Everyone, even only slightly 
acquainted with the history of the Civil War, knows that the ques- 
tion of first and greatest importance which arose and demanded solu- 
tion was that of the position in the struggle of the border slave states, 
namely, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri, writes Prof. John W. 
Burgess. Mr. Lincoln's administration gave its attention most serious- 
ly and anxiously to the work of holding these slave states back from 
passing secession ordinances, and preventing them from being oc- 
cupied by the armies of the Southern Confederacy. 

The most important among these states was Missouri. It was the 
largest; it reached away up into the very heart of the North; it com- 
manded the left bank of the Mississippi for some 500 miles, and the 
great United States arsenal of the west, containing the arms and 
munitions for that whole section of our country, was located in St. 
Louis. It had been stocked to its utmost capacity by the Secretary of 
War of the preceding administration, Mr. Floyd of Virginia, in the 
expectation that it would certainly fall into the hands of the South. 
The Governor of the State, C. F. Jackson, manifested the stand he 
would take in his reply to President Lincoln's requisition for Miss- 
ouri's quota of the first call for troops. He defied the President in 
the words: "Your requisition, in my judgment, is illegal, unconsti- 
tutional and revolutionary in its object; inhuman and diabolical and 
cannot be complied with." 

It happened most fortunately, however, that the Commandant of 
the arsenal was a staunch Unionist, Nathaniel Lyon. He immediately 
recognized the peril of the situation. He had only three men to guard 
the arsenal and there was in the city a full company of secessionist 
militia calling themselves Minute Men. Moreover, two companies of 
the State Militia composed of Germans had shortly before been dis- 
armed by the general of the state militia. Under these conditions 
Lyon turned to F. P. Blair for advice. Blair was acquainted with the 
views and sympathies of the inhabitants perfectly, and knew that he 
could rely only upon the Germans to save the arsenal and then the 
city and the State for the Union. 

159 



Thus far Prof. Burgess. The first step toward secession was the 
establishment of Camp Jackson, at St. Louis, with a view to taking 
the State out of the Union. General Lyon, who had been recently 
transferred from Fort Riley, resolved to leave nothing undone to 
thwart the Confederate plot, and soon had his plans ready. The of- 
ficers in command of the first four regiments loyal to the Union were 
Frank P. Blair, Heinrich Baernstein, then publisher of "Der Anzeiger 
des Westens"; Franz Sigel, of the revolutionary army of Baden, who 
had distinguished himself at Heppenheim, in Hessia, and at Waghausel 
and Kuppenheim, and Col. Schuttner. The Turn Verein, located on 
Tenth, between Market and Walnut streets, was animated by a fight- 
ing spirit. Four companies of Turners had assembled early in the 
night at the St. Louis Arsenal and placed themselves at the disposi- 
tion of General Lyon. A constant stream of German volunteers added 
to the regiment, who were provided with arms by the commander. 
There were approximately 800 men, of whom nine-tenths were of 
direct German blood. 

This was the situation on May 10, 1861. A council of war was held 
by General Lyon, Blair, Sigel and their associates, and General Lyon 
decided to strike a blow before the rebels were ready to act. The 
volunteers were assigned to their posts during the night. By 10 
o'clock the next morning Camp Jackson found itself surrounded and 
General Lyon demanded its surrender. There was no way out, but 
the full wrath of the defeated rebels turned upon the Germans. As 
the prisoners were being marched to the arsenal, street riots broke 
out at many places along the line, and the Germans were assailed on 
every hand with cries of "dirty Dutch" and other insulting epithets. 
Almost at the first movement on Camp Jackson, Constantin Stan- 
danski, the master-at-arms of the St. Louis Turn Verein, was wounded 
from ambush, and died several days later . 

After the capture of Camp Jackson, Lyon took his troops to Jeffer- 
sofi City, capital of the State, and forced the Governor to fly. Jack- 
son never returned. Lyon took Boonville, where he was reinforced 
by the First Iowa, and two weeks later moved on Sedalia by way of 
Tipton. He was there joined by two regiments from Kansas, and 
went into camp at Springfield. 

Meanwhile, General Sigel, with the Second and Third'Missouri, took 
a course toward the southwestern part of the State, coming up with the 
rebels at Carthage. His artillery, largely composed of the Baden ar- 
tillerists of 1848, soon got the better of the enemy. A battle took place 
August 10 at Wilson's Creek, where the heroic Lyon, recklessly ex- 
posing himself, was killed. An imposing monument marks his memory 
in St, Louis. 

This is in brief the story of how Missouri was saved to the Union. 

160 



Muhlenberg, Frederick August — German-American patriot, brother 
of General Peter Muhlenberg. Elected to the Continental Congress 
by the Assembly of Pennsylvania 1779 and 1780; Speaker of the 
Assembly 1781 and 1782; Chairman Pennsylvania Convention to ratify 
the Constitution of the United States 1787. Member of Congress for 
four terms, and the first Speaker of the American House of Repre- 
sentatives; also Speaker in the third Congress. 

Muhlenberg, Heinrich Melchior — Founder of the Lutheran Church 
in America. Born Sept. 6, 1711, at Eimbeck, Hanover. Sailed 1742, 
and after paying a visit to the Salzburg Protestants near Savannah, 
Georgia, settled in Pennsylvania. Erected what is known as the 
oldest Lutheran Church of brick in America at Trappe, where it is 
still preserved. He built the Zions Church, dedicated 1769, in which 
by order of Congress the memorial services to George Washington 
were held, attended by the Senate, House and Supreme Court and 
many generals, and where Light Horse Harry Lee first used the 
phrases "First in peace, first in war and first in the hearts of his 
countrymen." Muhlenberg's three sons, all German Lutheran pastors, 
became famous in war, politics and natural science. 

Muhlenberg, Johann Gabriel Peter — American general in the Revo- 
lutionary war. Born in Montgomery Co., Pa., October 1, 1746, son 
of Heinrich M. Muhlenberg. With his two younger brothers, Fred- 
erick August and Heinrich Ernst, he went in 1763 to Halle, Ger- 
many, to study for the ministry, returning to Philadelphia in 1766. 
At the outbreak of the Revolution he was pastor of the German 
Lutheran Community of Woodstock. Virginia. Participated actively 
in the measures preceding armed resistance to the unjust measures 
of Parliament, and on the recommendation of Washington and Pat- 
rick Henry was appointed Colonel of the Eighth (or German) regi- 
ment of Virginia. He preached to his congregation for the lajst time 
in January, 1776, on the duty of the citizen to his country, concluding 
with the memorable words: "There is a time for everything, for 
prayer, for preaching and also for fighting. The time for fighting 
has arrived." He had scarcely concluded the benediction when he 
cast off his clerical gown and stood revealed in full regimentals. An 
indescribable scene of patriotic enthusiasm followed, and many of 
his parishioners crowded around him and enlisted for service. On 
February 21, 1777, he was promoted to brigadier general by order 
of Congress. After the defeat of the American army at Brandywine, 
his brigade covered the retreat with invincible bravery, and in the 
battle of Germantown he performed his duty with distinction, causing 
the enemy's right wing to give way but unable to prevent the loss of 
the battle. In the storming of the redoubts at Yorktown he played 
a conspicuous part, commanding the light infantry which captured 

161 



the left bulwarks of the British fortifications and decided the battle. 
After the war he was vice-president of the high executive Council 
of Pennsylvania and was elected to a seat in the first, second and 
sixth Congress. He was elected eight times to the position of presi- 
dent of the German Society of Pennsylvania. He is represented in 
Statuary Hall in the Capitol at Washington by a monument of marble 
presented by the State of Pennsylvania. 

The following interesting story of the career of General Muhlenberg, 
by Mrs. Elizabeth Gadsby, Historian of the Daughers of the American 
Revolution, is taken from the Washington "Post" of July 5, 1903: 

The father, John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, located at Trappe, Pa., 
and was the founder of the Lutheran Church in America. 

During the Revolution the armies passed and repassed their home 
so frequently they never knew when the table was set whether the food 
prepared for themselves would be eaten by the English or American 
soldiers. They were frequently in great danger from the skirmishing 
which constantly took place all around them, and often sufifered the 
pangs of hunger, every field of grain and forage being devastated 
by the armies. 

Peter was sent to the University of Halle, in Prussia, where, tiring 
of his studies and the strict confinement, he ran away and joined 
the Prussian dragoons, which gave him his first military ardor and 
ambition. After several years of hardship he left the army and 
studied for the ministry. He returned to America, going back to 
Europe to be ordained in England in 1771, and was then called to 
the pastorate at Woodstock, Va., to preach to the Germans who had 
settled on the frontier of that State. 

In March, 1773, the Virginia Assembly recommended a committee 
of correspondence, and the House of Burgesses passed a resolution 
making the first day of June a day of fasting and prayer in sympathy 
with Boston, whose port Parliament had ordered closed. Governor 
Dunmore declared this resolution treason, and indignantly dissolved 
the House of Burgesses. Great excitement prevailed. The governor, 
finding the people of his colony in great sympathy with the cause of 
freedom, aroused himself for immediate action, and endeavored to 
bring the Indians in hostile array against the colonists, also causing 
a rumor to be spread that the slaves would rise in insurrection against 
the colonists. 

In April he removed the powder from the old magazine at the 
Capitol. His ships were laden and ready for flight or defense. The 
powder was put on board the governor's ship. 

The people demanded the return of the powder to Williamsburg. 
Dunmore became alarmed when Patrick Henry marched at the head 
of his volunteers toward the Capitol to capture the powder. Ar- 

162 



riving at Great Bridge, the first conflict took place between the 
English and the colonists. 

Dunmore kept the powder, but ordered the Receiver General to pay- 
its full value, which sum Patrick Henry turned into the public treasury. 

The closing of the port of Boston caused great indignation through- 
out the land; memorable resolutions were introduced by George 
Mason, and were adopted by the Assembly. 

Jefferson truly said, "The closing of the port of Boston acted as 
an electric shock, placing every man in Virginia on his feet." 

Patrick Henry was warmly supported by the Rev. Muhlenberg, who 
had been quietly working among his people. A meeting of patriots 
was called in the assembly room of the old Apollo Tavern at Williams- 
burg, where delegates were appointed to meet in Fairfax County, 
where a convention was determined upon. Muhlenberg was chosen 
colonel of the Eighth Regiment, he and Henry being the only 
civilians of the Virginia line to whom regiments were assigned. 

Muhlenberg was at this time only twenty-nine years of age. His 
well-known character gave the convention confidence that he was 
worthy of the trust. 

Hence he abandoned the altar for the sword. His people were 
scattered miles along the frontier of Virginia, but the news spread like 
fire, and the Sunday he was to preach his last sermon the rude country 
church could not hold the tenth of them. The surrounding woods 
were filled with people, horses and every sort of vehicle. It was 
a scene long depicted in their memories and oft told to their descend- 
ants until every schoolboy is familiar with the story. 

The decided step was taken by their pastor; the exciting times called 
forth the highest feelings in man, the love of country! Patriotism! and 
"Liberty or death!" was the cry. 

They needed but the spark to burst into flame and needless to say 
he supplied the flint and tinder to kindle that spark. 

His concluding words were: 

"There is a time for everything, a time to preach and a time to 
pray, but that time has passed away. There is a time to fight, 
and that time has now come." 
He pronounced the benediction, and, turning back his robe, appeared 
in martial array, his soldierly form clad in the uniform of a colonel. 
The scene beggars description and has no parallel in history. 
The people flocked around him, eager to be ranked among his 
followers. 

The drummers struck up for volunteers and over 300 enlisted that 
day. 

Throughout the war for independence General Washington depended 
on him to recruit the army in Virginia, which he never failed to do 

163 



under the most trying circumstances; men seemed to spring up like 
mushrooms when he needed them to replenish his oft depleted 
ranks. 

Lord Dunmore was ravishing the country; Colonel Muhlenberg 
followed closely on his heels. Dunmore built Great Bridge and took 
up quarters in Norfolk; finding himself closely hemmed in, he burned 
the town, then one of the finest cities in the South, for which act he 
was severely criticized by the British. After his defeat he took refuge 
in Portsmouth, still holding command of the sea, harrowing the people, 
destroying property, until, finding his quarters too hot, he hurriedly 
set sail for Grogans Island in the bay. Gen. Andrew Lewis drove him 
from there, and he sailed for New York, and soon after returned 
to England. 

The North now claimed the attention and eager eyes were watching 
there, the South resting comparatively quiet. 

At this time General Clinton marched South, Ben. Lee following 
closely in his tracks, arriving at Williamsburg March 29, 1776, just 
twelve days after the surrender of Boston. 

Colonel Muhlenberg had been in command at Suffojk. He now 
joined General Lee, with him following up Clinton to South Caro- 
lina. This led on to the battle of Sullivan's Island, and Charleston, 
which was so disastrous to the enemy they returned at once to 
New York. 

General Lee, in his ofificial report, says: 

"I know not which corps I have the greatest reason to be pleased 
with. Colonel Muhlenberg's Virginians or the North Carolina troops; 
both are equally alert, zealous and spirited." 

These, too, were raw recruits which drew such praise from the 
finest military critic of the day. 

It was well indeed for Muhlenberg to have such praise, for the 
usual jealousies, bickering and wrongly placed commendations fol- 
lowed him throughout the war, but his keen sense of duty, his noble 
Christian spirit ever made him forget self and kept him above petty 
strife throughout the long and bitter struggle. 

At the battles of Brandywine and Germantown Muhlenberg's troops 
were ever foremost in action, and the one regiment which used the 
bayonet. 

They had no words of commendation above the other regiments 
from their commander. Yet the English spoke highly of their daring 
and bravery. Riding at the rear of his brigade, it being the last in 
retreat, his tired horse was too jaded to jump a fence, and he, after 
many weary hours in the saddle, worn with fatigue, was aroused 
by a ball whistling past his head and the cry running along the enemy's 

164 



line: "Pick off that officer on the white horse!" The general turned 
and saw a young officer single him out, only waiting for a musket, 
which was being loaded for him, to shoot. He drew his pistol and 
though at some distance, shot him through the head. 

General Washington chose General Muhlenberg to be with him 
in that terrible winter at Valley Forge. His troops were stationed 
along the river, in consequence, nearer the British and in more exposed 
condition from both cold and the enemy. 

His intrepid valor and endurance seemed to communicate to his 
■ soldiers, who were frequently throughout the campaign without tents, 
clothing or food sufficient to maintain life, and when their time of en- 
listment was up would return to their homes in wretched rags, be 
clothed by loving hands from the fruit of domestic looms and, at 
their beloved commander's request, return and take up the burden 
of war again. 

His parents resided at Trappe, not far from Valley Forge, and he 
sometimes rode off alone at night to visit them, returning by early 
dawn. He several times narrowly escaped capture. 

In 1777 he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. 

He was often called from Virginia, the base of his actions, to 
assist Washington at other points when that wise head needed a 
\ strong hand. 

In 1779, after one of those hard marches and months of labor, after 

an absence of three years from his family, while on his way home 

^ to a much-needed rest, he was ordered to Richmond and in the time 

of Virginia's direst need was put at the head of all forces needed for 

1^ her defense. 

The enemy who said, "The root of all resistance lies in the Common- 
wealth of Virginia and must be destroyed." 

So the Americans considered it most important to be defended. 
The advance of General Gates was already decided upon, but without 
'; the help of the organized troops and supplies it could not be done. 
And Muhlenberg was again called on to collect recruits. This was 
*^no trifling task, as the militia were scattered and unpaid; but it re- 
, quired a man of great military skill and personal influence to fulfill 
V ' ..his mission. 

His whole force, with the exception of one regiment at Fort Pitt, 
were prisoners at Charleston, which had been recaptured by Clinton 
L'rin May, 1780. Virginia now became the seat of war. A fleet sailed 
r up the James, ravaging with fire and sword. 

General Muhlenberg began his raarch to meet them with 800 raw 
recruits, urging his officers to lose no opportunity to instruct and 
fit them for the oncoming struggle. He sent Generals Gregory and 
Benbury to Great Bridge, and as soon as he received reinforcements 

165 



p 



«^v 




4 



MAJ. GEN. PETER MUHLENBERG 



he advanced upon Portsmouth and drove the enemy in, so harrassing 
them that they were forced to withdraw, and embarked for New 
York. This repulse of their boasted descent in Virginia proved very 
humiliating. 

The enemy being withdrawn, Governor Jefiferson, with his economic 
views, saw fit to disband the troops. After they were disbanded 
General Muhlenberg's command was about 1,000, of which General 
Green detached 400 for the Southern army, leaving Virginia in this 
defenseless condition at a most critical time, as General Phillips' in- 
vasion with 2,200 and Benedict Arnold's with 2,000 landed at Ports- 
mouth January 2, 1781. At the death of General Phillips, Arnold took 
command; then sailed up the James to Richmond, desolating the 
country. A bloody record on the page of history. 

After driving Governor Jefferson from his capital at Richmond, 
General Steuben, being the only force at hand, was not able to attack 
or resist this onslaught. 

Arnold sailed down the tortuous James and fell back to Portsmouth, 
where he strongly intrenched himself, threatening to give the rebels 
such a blow as would shake the whole continent. General Greene 
returned to Virginia, and, with General Steuben, began to collect 
forces and supplies, leaving Muhlenberg to watch Arnold and keep 
him from further depredations. 

There was a project set on foot to capture Arnold personally. "Con- 
science makes cowards of us all," so he who had once been brave and 
fearless surrounded himself with a trusty guard day and night. The 
attempt proved futile, as it had in New York. 

A detachment of the fleet under M. de Lilly arriving at this time 
gave General Muhlenberg great hopes of capturing the traitor. All 
plans were made, but the French commander deemed the Elizabeth 
River too shallow for his boats, and just as they were well on the 
eve of accomplishing this greatly desired object M. de Lilly set sail 
for Newport, thus dashing the revived hopes of General Muhlenberg, 
who had set himself to capture the traitor. 

The importance of capturing Arnold and dislodging the enemy 
in Virginia was deeply felt by Washington, and he urged on his 
officers to leave no means untried to accomplish that purpose. He 
induced Admiral Detouches to set sail for the Chesapeake, and the 
Marquis de Lafayette was dispatched with 1,200 of the continental 
line to co-operate with the fleet and take command in Virginia. 

General Muhlenberg and General Gregory, with a reinforcement of 
800 men, were in charge at West Landing. 

Matters were now hastening on to the near close of hostilities. 

Lafayette was in command in Virginia, and Muhlenberg, as usual, 
was taking a heavy hand at the game. 

167 



Cornwallis was being hemmed in at Yorktown, and Muhlenberg 
was put in command of the advance guard, which required the utmost 
miUtary skill and tact, for had Cornwallis attempted to escape the 
whole weight of the battle would have fallen on this line, and no 
doubt would have proved fatal by overwhelming numbers. 

The British commander waited in vain for help from without, and 
was at last compelled to surrender on that memorable day, October 
12, 1781, at Yorktown. 

General Muhlenberg continued in the army until the treaty of peace 
in 1783. The trusted warm friend of General Washington, who had 
ever relied on him to add to the volunteers in recruiting the army at 
the briefest possible notice since the first volunteers the day he forsook 
the altar for the sword. 

After the treaty of peace had been signed at Versailles he retired 
to a much-needed rest in the bosom of his family, where he found 
his home had suffered severely from the misfortunes of war. 

Himself broken in health and fortune, but happy in the conscious- 
ness of a duty well done, he could say with Baron Steuben, "If we 
win the great prize we fight for the struggle cannot be too great." 

His former congregation implored him to return and take up his 
pastoral duties among them, but he said: "It would never do to 
mount the parson after the soldier." 

He was then called to serve the political side of his country, and 
was elected to Congress in 1789, and served in that capacity until 1801. 
His brother was elected the first Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. • 

In 1801 he was elected Senator, and in 1803 he was appointed col- 
lector of the port of Philadelphia. Until the day of his death he 
served his country with honor and distinction. 

The Luthern Church in which Muhlenberg preached was torn down 
about seventy-five years ago. 

There is a house in Woodstock, on North Main Street, partly built 
of the logs from the old church. On the site of the old church has 
been erected an Episcopal church. As Muhlenberg had taken Epis- 
copal orders, they claim him, as well as the cemetery, which they 
have sold in lots. A Presbyterian Church and chapel and several 
business houses are on this lot. 

One of the oldest citizens, now eighty-four years of age, says he 
remembers well the old pulpit, which stood upon the lot some years 
after the church had been torn down. 

The house in which Muhlenberg lived, and in which tradition says 
he entertained General Washington, was torn down about twelve 
years ago. 

168 



Nagel, Charles — Secretary of Commerce and Labor under Presi- 
dent Taft, 1909-13. Born in Colorado County, Texas, August 9, 1849. 
son of Hermann and Friedericke (Litzmann) N. Prominent lawyer, 
resident in St. Louis. Studied Roman law, political economy, etc., 
University of Berlin, 1873; (LL.D. Brown U., 1913, also Villanova 
U., Pa. and Wash. U., St. Louis). Admitted to bar 1873; lecturer St. 
Louis Law School, 1885-09. Member Missouri House of Representa- 
tives, 1881-3; president St. Louis City Council, 1893-7; member Repub- 
lican National Committee 1908-12. Trustee Washington U., St. Louis. 

Nast, Thomas. — America's foremost political cartoonist, originator 
of the Elephant, the Donkey and the Tiger as symbols for the 
Republican, Democratic and Tammany organizations, whom Lincoln, 
Grant, Mark Twain delighted to honor as their guest, the critic 
whose broadsides shattered the careers of hosts of political crooks 
and swindlers, the patriot whose faithful service won support for 
the cause of the country. One of the greatest fighters for truth 
and decency known in American history. He it was who took up 
the cudgel single handed against the Tweed Ring, the gang that 
stole four hundred millions from the New York City treasury, who 
answered a banker's offer of a half million bribe with the answer: "1 
made up my mind not long ago to put some of those fellows behind 
the bars, and I am going to do it." He did it at the peril of his 
life. His cartoons roused the public conscience and prodded the 
police into action. Boss Tweed, the looter chief, called out in 
despair: "Let's stop them damned pictures. I don't care so much 
what the papers write about me — my constituents can't read; but, 
damn it, they can see pictures!" The pitiless cartooning of Nast 
finally broke up the gang, with most of them ending in jail. During 
the Civil War his cartoons roused the nation as nothing else. When 
Grant was asked what man in civil life had done the best work for 
America, he answered: "Thomas Nast. He did as much as any 
man to save the Union and bring the war to an end." This he did 
by his cartoons in "Harper's" that carried messages of cheer and 
patriotism to the humblest cottages in the prairie. Thousands of 
recruits were won for the Northern cause by the simple patriotism 
of Nast's cartoons. His work proved a treasure trove, during the 
present war, for pilfering cartoonists, who lifted copies bodily from 
the old volumes of "Harper's." Nast was born in 1840 at Landau, 
Bavaria. His great work in the end was ill rewarded, for having 
been sent to fill the consulate in Ecuador, he lost his life through 
fever contracted in the service of his country. 

National Security League. — An organization of active patriots who, 
with the American Defense Society and the American Protective 
League, spread rapidly to all parts of the country during the war to 

169 



report acts of disloyalty and soon became synonymous with repres- 
sion and terror. It ultimately took on a political character and with 
its backing of men interested in war contracts and general profiteer- 
ing, started in to defeat the re-election to Congress of members who 
had not voted "right." At the instance of Representative Frear of 
Wisconsin, a special Congressional committee was appointed and the 
officers and members were summoned to appear before the committee 
to give testimony. .The investigation revealed the fact that the secre- 
tary of the League had been a Washington lobbyist and that its 
backers comprised a group of financiers and heads of trusts who were 
using the organization to intimidate or defeat members of the House 
who did not vote as they were expected to vote on war measures. 
The list was a long one, but included J. P. Morgan, John D. Rocke- 
feller, Nicholas F. Grady, director of fifty large corporations interested 
in war profits; H. C. Frick, of the United States Steel Corporation; 
Arthur Custis James, of the Phelps-Dodge Company; Mortimer L. 
and Jacob Schiff, H. H. Rogers, of the Amalgamated and Anaconda 
Copper Companies; Charles Hayden, representing twenty-six cor- 
porations; the Guggenheimers, Cleveland H. Dodge, William Hamlin 
and Eversley Childs, W. K. and E. W. Vanderbilt, George W. Perkins, 
Clarence H. Mackay, T. Coleman Dupont, the powder king, and 
many others. Among the officers of the League were the late Col. 
Theodore Roosevelt and Elihu Root. 

Most of these names were connected with the $2,000,000 fund sub- 
scribed, contrary to the laws of the State of New York, to re-elect 
John Purroy Mitchel mayor of New York in November, 1917. The 
scandal formed the subject of an investigation by the District Attor- 
ney for the southern district of New York, and Assistant District 
Attorney Kilroe told the reporters that at a luncheon -given by 
Cleveland H. Dodge during the campaign to a group of millionaires 
one of the participants declared: "The patriotic issue of the cam- 
paign is not doing as well as expected," and that one member at the 
luncheon said: 'Tf between that date and the election a terrible catas- 
trophe happened to the American forces it would insure Mitchel's 
election — a catastrophe such as the sinking of a transport." Mitchel's 
campaign was conducted on a purely alarmist platform, in which the 
Kaiser was represented as having his whole attention concentrated 
on whether Mitchel, the patriot, or Hylan, accused of disloyalty and 
pro-Germanism, would be elected; but Mitchel was buried under an 
avalanche of votes. 

Testifying before the Congressional investigating committee, Rep- 
resentative Cooper, of Wisconsin, declared: "This organization is 
financed by corporations worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and 
can hire college professors and secure publication in the newspapers 
of articles designed to deliberately mislead public opinion," and, re- 

170 



ferring to the denial of Elihu Root and other officials of the organ- 
ization that it had engaged in politics, he said: "If they are willing to 
testify under oath, in public, so foolishly, there is nothing they will 
not do in secret to serve the great, powerful corporations which they 
represent." Representative Reavis read into the record a statement 
that 40 per cent of the league's "honor roll" of forty-seven Represen- 
tatives voted against measures which would have made the big inter- 
ests receiving tremendous war profits bear their burden of war ex- 
penses. All of those who voted for the McLemore resolution, against 
war and against the Julius Kahn conscription bill were put down 
in a "disloyalty chart," and large sums were expended to defeat 
them. 

S. Stanwood Menken, an early president of the league, in his 
testimony stated that he favored an American navy which, combined 
with that of Great Britain, would "surpass any other two-power navy 
in the world," but that, on the other hand, "he favored a reduction 
of armaments." 

The succeeding president of the league, Charles D. Orth, was 
forced to admit that in publishing the league's Congressional "disloy- 
alty chart" he had conveyed a false impression by recording the vote 
on the McLemore resolution as on the merits of the resolution instead 
of on the vote to table it. There were innumerable other counts 
against the league. One was that it sent its literature to 1,400 news- 
papers and then read what these newspapers printed in arriving at the 
opinion of "the great majority of the people." In other words, they 
first circulated the opinion and then accepted it as that of the 
people. Orth was asked if there was any good sound American stock 
in Illinois. 

"There surely is," he answered. 

"Then how do you reconcile that with the fact that the men 
who voted against war were returned to Congress with an over- 
whelming majority?" he was asked by Representative Saunders, but 
failed to reply. 

Among the activities of thig league was that of dictating the things 
to be taught in the public schools. In New York $50,000,000 is an- 
nually spent for the public school system, raised by taxes paid by all 
the people, and the schools should represent the people who pay for 
them. A New York paper of April 4, 1919, in an editorial, said: 
"It has been shown during the past few days that a course of eco- 
nomics has been adopted by our educators under the tutelage of 
an outside body. This outside body is the National Security League, 
an organization financed by the big war profiteers, whose political 
activity in connection with the last Congressional election consti- 
tuted a grave scandal." 

The Congressional committee on March 3, 1919, filed a report ar- 

171 



raigning the Security League, calling it "a menace to representative 
government," "conceived in London," "nursed to power by foreign 
interests," "used in elections by same interests," and revealing "the 
hands of Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Morgan, du Pont, suggesting steel, 
oil, money bags, Russian bonds, rifles and radicals." 

In regard to Frederic C. Coudert, a prominent New York lawyer, 
one of the league's leading lights, Mr. Menken testified .that he 
represented Great Britain, France and Russia in international matters 
and is counsel for the British ambassador. 

The originator of the league was S. Stanwood Alenken, who testi- 
fied that he conceived the idea while listening to a debate in the 
House of Commons on August 5, 1914. He is a member of the 
firm of Beekman, Menken & Griscom, New York lawyers, who repre- 
sent a large number of corporations controlling railways and public 
utilities; also the Liverpool, London and Globe insurance companies, 
which proceeded early in the war to force the German insurance 
companies out of business. The firm also represents "some sugar 
companies and also the Penn-Seaboard Steel Company." 

Charles D. Orth is a member of a New York firm dealing in sisal, 
from which farmers' binding twine is made, and testified before a 
Senate investigating committee that he had been engaged in forming 
a combination to increase the price of this product. His firm had 
an office in London and he traveled all over Europe in the interest 
of his sisal business. 

All the heavy subscribers were shown to be men making millions 
in war profits and interested in silencing every voice raised to 
criticise the conduct of the war. Through the activity of this organ- 
ization, pacifists everywhere were denounced and cast into jail. 
What baneful influence it was able to exercise is apparent. The 
Carnegie Corporation — Andrew Carnegie, president; Elihu Root, vice- 
president, holdings in United States Steel Corporation, with income 
ove'r $6,000,000— contributed $150,000 to the league. The investigation 
showed that the organization had expended the following sums: 

July 8, 1915, to December 31, 1915 $ 38.191.59 

January 1, 1916, to December 31, 1916 94,840.43 

January 1, 1917, to December 31, 1917 111,324.59 

January 1, 1918, to December 31, 1918 235,667.56 



$480,014.17 

Neutrality — "The Best Practices of Nations." — President Wilson's 
rnessage to Congress in August, 1913: 

::"For the rest I deem it my duty to exercise the authority conferred 
upon me by the law of March 14, 1912, to see to itthat neither side of 
the struggle now going on in Mexico receive any assistance from this 

172 



side of the border. I shall follow the best practise of nations in the 
matter of neutrality by forbidding the exportation of arms and muni- 
tions of war of any kind from the United States-^-a policy suggested 
by several interesting precedents, and certainly dictated by many 
manifest considerations of practical expediency. We cannot in the 
circumstances be the partisans of either party to the contest that 
now distracts Mexico, or constitute ourselves the virtual umpire 
between them." 

New Ulm Massacre — New Ulm, a settlement of Germans in Min- 
nesota, was August 18, 1862, attacked by Sioux Indians, who in resent- 
ment of their ill treatment by Government agents and for the non- 
arrival of their annuities from Washington, took advantage of the 
fact that many of the male white population had departed for the 
war and left the homes unprotected. The' Indians adopted the ruse 
of entering the houses of settlers under pretext of begging or trading 
for bread. Not suspecting any treachery, they were admitted as 
usual, and in an instant turned upon the friendly Germans and mur- 
dered upward of seventy men, women and children. A squad of 
Germans, who were using wagons with banners, headed by a band, 
to recruit for the Union army along the frontier, were fired upon 
from ambush and several killed, seven miles from New Ulm. The 
men were able to effect their retreat and to alarm the countryside, 
while soon the smoke rising from ruined homes was apprising the 
settlers in every direction of the occurrence of extraordinary events 
and to hasten them into the town for common protection. The next 
morning, Tuesday, August 19, the Indians were roving in every direc- 
tion throughout the neighborhood; and appearing before the town, 
opened an attack on the outposts stationed west and southwest of 
the settlement. Ill equipped for such engagement, the men fell back, 
with the Indians forcing their way into the center of the town, 
where the fighting continued until nightfall, many on both sides giving 
up their lives in the fierce battle. On the following morning the 
Indians had disappeared in order to surprise the small garrison at 
Fort Ridgely and destroy it preparatory to a campaign of murder and 
rapine along the Minnesota Valley. Meantime reinforcements arrived 
from Mankato and St. Peter, 30 miles distant, and from Le Gueur, 
still more remote. But the garrison held out, and strongly reinforced 
and greatly embittered the Indians again marched upon New Ulm, 
driving everything in their way and evidently determined to destroy 
every homestead in the village, which was soon a mass of flames. 
On August 23 the whites succeeded in barricading themselves on a 
small area of ground, where they were in a better position to con- 
tinue the uneven struggle. The fighting was not interrupted unti' 
nightfall, and was resumed the next morning, which was Sunday. 
After several hours of fierce fighting the Indians realized that they 

173 



were at a disadvantage, and learning from their scouts that strong 
reinforcements were on the way, abandoned -the siege. A number of 
families had either wholly or partly perished and 178 homes had 
been destroyed. A train of 150 wagons carried the survivors, includ- 
ing 56 wounded and sick, to Mankato and St. Peter, comparatively 
few returning to New Ulm, many scattering throughout the State to 
begin life over again. The innocent Germans had thus paid the 
penalty of crimes committed by others who were permitted to profit 
by their fraudulent treatment of the Indians. 

Lord Northcliffe Controls American Papers. — Lord Northcliffe not 
only owns the London "Times," "Mail" and "Evening News," but 
the Paris "Mail." He also owns an important share of stock in the 
Paris "Matin" and the St. Petersburg "Novoje Vremja." His influ- 
ence in American journalism has long been known, and J. P. O'Ma- 
honey, editor of "The Indiana Catholic and Record," in a statement 
in the Indianapolis "Star," directly charged Lord Northcliffe with 
owning and controlling eighteen very successful American papers in 
order to use them against the best interests of the American people 
and in the interest of Great Britain. With many of the leading news- 
papers under the control of a foreign publisher it is not difficult to 
account for the persistent misrepresentation of German policies and 
motives, and for the general bias of so many of the leading papers in 
the East. The following is the extract from Mr. O'Mahoney's state- 
ment referred to as printed in the Indianapolis "Star" early in 1916. 

"Talking about foreign propaganda in our midst, Lord Northcliffe 
(then Sir Arthur Harmsworth), told the writer in an interview in 
the Walton Hotel, Philadelphia, in April, 1900: 

"*The syndicate of which I am head owns or controls eighteen 
very successful American papers in your leading cities. We find the 
American service they send us very satisfactory, and we, of course, 
furnish them with our great European service. As you see, I am not 
here on pleasure only, but on business.' 

"When asked to name the papers 'owned and controlled,' the big, 
brainy, handsome Englishman cleverly 'sidestepped.* 

"Now, if eighteen or more leading papers are owned and controlled 
in England, is it a wonder that the 'German plots in the United 
States' are being 'played up,' and the English plots in the United 
States hushed up? Is it surprising that the people, through the news 
service, get only the English side of the news?" 

Osterhaus, Peter Joseph. — Regarded by some critics the foremost 
German commander in the Union army, called by the Confederates 
"the American Bayard." He attained the rank of major general and 
corps commander. Born in Coblenz in 1823. Served as a one-year 

174 



volunteer in the Prussian army at Coblenz and rose to the rank of 
an officer of reserves. He participated in the German revolution and 
fled to America, settling at Belleville, 111., and St. Louis. In 1861, 
at the outbreak of the war, he enlisted as a private in the Third Ger- 
man Regiment of Missouri. He soon was appointed major of the 
regiment and later was made colonel of the Twelfth Missouri (Ger- 
man) Regiment, rising to brigadier general in January, 1863, and to 
major general after distinguished service at Chattanooga in the same 
year. On September 23, 1864, he was given command of the Fifteenth 
Army Corps, which he commanded in Sherman's march to the sea. 
He retired January 16, 1866, after continuous service for five years, 
rising from the pike to the highest command, never deserting the 
Union flag for a day, fighting thirty-four battles without losing one 
where he was in independent command. He lived to see the first year 
or two of the World War, residing at the age of ninety with a married 
daughter at Duisberg in the Rhinelands. His services to the Union 
were forgotten and his pension was cut off. Rear Admiral Hugo Os- 
terhaus, retired in 1913, is his son. He was born in Belleville, June 15, 
1851, and resides in Washington. 

Palatine Declaration of Independence. — The history of the Tryon 
County Committee, identified as it is with the events in New York 
State immediately preceding the Revolution and throughout the 
latter, and commemorating as it does the name of General Herkimer, is 
the more interesting for being probably the first, and surely among the 
first, to make a declaration of independence in anticipation of the 
formal Congressional announcement of the break with Great Britain of 
July 4, 1776. The claim of priority is conceded by William L. Stone 
in his work on the "Life of Joseph Brant-Thayendanegea," (1830) 
the Indian chief who proved himself the scourge of the New York 
and Pennsylvania frontier settlers. Stone in Volume I, p. 67, says: 

It is here worthy, not only of special note, but of all admira- 
tion, how completely and entirely these border-men held them- 
selves amenable, in the most trying exigencies, to the just ex- 
ecution of the laws. Throughout all their proceedings, the 
history of the Tryon Committees will show that they were 
governed by the purest dictates of patriotism, and the highest 
regard to moral principle. Unlike the rude inhabitants of most 
frontier settlements, especially under circumstances when the 
magistracy are, from necessity, almost powerless, the frontier 
patriots of Tryon County were scrupulous in thefr devotion to 
the supremacy of the laws. Their leading men were likewise 
distinguished for their intelligence; and while North Carolina 
is disputing whether she did not in fact utter a declaration ot 
independence before it was done by Congress, by recurring to 
the first declaration of the Palatine Committee, noted in its 
proper place, the example may almost be said to have proceeded 
from the Valley of the Mohawk. 

175 



"The Aliiuite Book of the Committee of Safety of Tryon County, 
the Old New York Frontier" CNew York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1905), 
contains the minutes of the meeting at which this German American 
Declaration of Independence was adopted. The names, reduced to 
their German originals, leave no doubt of the racial character of the 
majority of the members. The declaration adopted August 27, 1774, 
begins with these words: 

Whereas the British Parliament has lately passed an Act for 
raising a Revenue in America without the consent of our Rep- 
resentatives to abridging the liberties and privileges of the 
American Colonies and therefore blocking up the Port of Bos- 
ton, the Freeholders and Inhabitants of Palatine District in the 
County of Tryon aforesaid, looking with Concern and heartfelt 
Sorrow on these Alarming and calamitous conditions. Do meet 
this 27th day of August, 1774, on that purpose at the house of 
Adam Loucks, Esq., (Lux) at Stonearabia and concluded the 
Resolves following, vizt. 

King George is acknowledged the lawful sovereign, but 

3. That we think it is our undeniable privilege to be taxed 
only with our Consent, given by ourselves (or by our Repre- 
sentatives). That Taxes otherwise laid and exacted are unjus*^ 
and unconstitutional. That the late Acts of Parliament declara- 
tive of their Rights of laying internal Taxes on the American 
Colonies are obvious Incroachments on the Rights and Liberties 
of the British subjects in America. 

Sympathy is expressed with the people of Boston, "whom we con- 
sider brethren suffering in the Common Cause." and that "we think 
the sending of Delegates from the different Colonies to a general 
continental Congress is a salutary measure necessary at this alarm- 
ing Crisis," etc. 

Section 5 of a resolution adopted nine months later, at a meeting 
of the Palatine Committee, May 21, 1775, expresses the declaration in 
even more specific form, as follows: 

That as we abhor a state of slavery, we do Join and unite 
together under all the ties of religion, honor, justice and love 
for our countrymen never to become slaves, and to defend our 
freedom with our lives and fortunes. 

Of the 71 names attached to the declaration, 48 were distinctly 
German, and six Dutch or Low German. Some of the names appear 
in their anglicised form in the minutes, due to clerical errors and 
gross indifference of their bearers; but their identification is based 
on the careful researches of Friedrich Kapp, the historian of the ^ 
German element in New York, and others. Fuchs was changed into 
Fox, Teichert into Tygart and Klock into Clock. The change was 
also due to an inherent desire to hide the German origin of the names 
which assume such important historical value. Thcit the writing of 

176 



Loucks for Lux was an error is proved by the discovery that a de- 
scendant of thje same family, one Adam Lux, played quite an im- 
portant part in the Baden revolution of 1849, while descendants of 
the Petrie family are living today in Wurtemberg, Germany. The list 
of 54 German signers (inclusive of the Hollanders or Low Germans) 
is as follows: 

Adam Lux, Johann Frey, Major; Andreas Finck, Jr., Major; An- 
dreas Reiber, Peter Wagner, Lieutenant-Colonel; Johann Jacob Karl 
Klock, Colonel; George Ecker, Nikolaus Herckheimer, Major-General; 
Wilhelm Sieber, Major; Johann Pickert, Ensign; Edward Wall, Wil- 
helm Petrie, Surgeon; Jacob Weber, Markus Petrie, Lieutenant; 
Johann Petrie, George Wentz, Lieutenant; Johann Frank. Philipp 
Fuchs, Friedrich Fuchs,. Christoph Fuchs, Adjutant; August Hess, 
Michel IlHg, Captain; Friedrich Ahrendorf, George Herckheimer, 
Captain; Werner Teichert, Lorenz Zimmermann, Peter Bellinger, 
Lieutenant-Colonel; Johann Demuth, Adjutant; Wilhelm Fuchs, 
Christian Nellis, Heinrich Nellis, Heinrich Harter, Hanjost 
Schumacher, Major; Isaak Paris. (Elsaesser) Heinrich Heintz, 
Friedrich Fischer, Colonel; Johann Klock, Lieutenant; Jacob 
James Klock, Major; Volker Vedder, Lieutenant-Colonel; Fried. 
Hellmer, Captain; Rudolph Schuhmacher, Hanjost Herckheimer, 
Colonel; Johann Eisenlord, Captain; Friedrich Bellinger, Adam Bell- 
inger, Second Lieutenant; Johann Keyser, First Lieutenant; Johann 
Bliven, Major; Wilhelm Fuchs, Lieutenant. 

Samuel Ten Broeck, Major; Antoon van Fechten, Adjutant; Har- 
manus van Slyck, Major; Abraham van Horn, Quartermaster; Willem 
Schuyler, Gose van Alstijn. 

Franz Daniel Pastorius and German, Dutch and English Coloniza- 
tion. — What the Mayflower is to the Puritans, the Concord is to the 
descendants of the Germans who were among the pioneer settlers 
of America. It was this vessel that bore to American shores the first 
compact German band of immigrants, under the leadership of Franz 
Daniel Pastorius. 

While the first Dutch settlement, that of Manhattan Island, or New 
York, was founded in 1614, and that of Plymouth by the Puritans in 
1620, that of Germantown, Pennsylvania, occurred in 1683, although 
long prior to that date Germans in large numbers were settled in 
the New World, and there is evidence that there were Germans among 
the Jamestown pioneers and those of the Massachusetts Bay colony. 

But German immigration is reckoned to have begun with the 
arrival of thirteen families from Crefeld under Pastorius. They em- 
barked July 24, 1683, on the Concprd, and arrived October 6, 1683, in 
Philadelphia. 

Pastorius was born September 26, 1651, at Sommernhausen Fran- 

177 



conia, studied law and lived in Frankfort-on-the-Main. By the so- 
called Germantown patent he acquired 5,350 acres near Philadelphia 
from William Penn and founded Germantown. Acting for a company 
of Germans and Hollanders, 22,377 additional acres were acquired 
under the Manatauney Patent. Germantown was laid out October 
24, 1685. (See "Germantown Settlement.") 

The principal occupation of the settlers was textile industry, farm- 
ing and the establishment of vineyards. Pastorius was elected mayor 
in 1688 and the next year the town was incorporated. In 1688 Pas- 
torius and others issued a judicial protest against slavery. He became 
a member of the Philadelphia school-board, twice was elected to the 
Assembly and also acted as magistrate. 

Three famous families issued from this settlement. The Ritten- 
hausens, who established the first flour and the first paper mill in 
America and from whom was descended the great astronomer, Ritten- 
house; the Gottfrieds, from whom descended Godfrey, the inventor 
of the quadrant, and the Saurs, of whom Christopher Saur attained 
fame as a printer. 

There is some analogy between the Puritans and the Crefeld colony 
in that they were strongly religious bodies, and of the plain people, 
though the Germans, unlike the Pilgrims, were not forced to leave 
their native country by intolerable conditions of oppression and 
bigoty. Another notable incident is the fact that the Pilgrims brought 
over the political ideas of Holland rather than of England, as 
they had lived in Holland for twelve years, exiled for conscience's sake, 
earning their bread in a foreign land by the labor of their hands. 

King James had declared of the Puritans: "I will make them 
conform, or I will harry them out of the land." Their long residence 
in Holland influenced their future politically, if not in the direction 
of tolerance, since those who joined them soon practised in America 
the oppression on their fellows which they had left England to escape. 

Dr. William Elliot Griffis agrees with Lowell "that we are worth 
nothing except so far as we have disinfected ourselves of Anglicism." 
Dr. Griffis says that the Dutch settlers of that period, a period when 
England, even down to 1752, was in her calendar, like Russia today, 
eleven days behind the rest of the world, "brought with them some- 
thing else than what Washington Irving credits them with. They 
had schools and schoolmasters, ministers and churches, the best kind 
of land laws, with the registration of deeds and mortgages, tolera- 
tion, the habit of treating the Indian as a man, the written ballot, 
the village community of free men, and an inextinguishable love of 
liberty were theirs. They originated on American soil many things, 
usually credited to the Puritans of New England, but which the Eng- 
lish rule abolished. They, however who remained, assisted by Hugue- 

178 



not, Scotchman and German, though in a conquered province, fought 
th« battle of constitutional liberty against the royal governors of 
New York night and day, and inch by inch, until, in the noble State 
constitution of 1778, the victory of 1648 was re-echoed." 

New York he contends, "is less the fruit of English than of Teu- 
tonic civilization." It was the institutions of Holland, not only direct- 
ly, but through the medium of the Puritans, that influenced the 
shaping of those policies which are known as American. "They say 
we are an English nation," writes Dr. Griffis in a paper read before 
the Congregational Club of Boston in 1891, "and they attempt to 
derive our institutions from England, notwithstanding that our in- 
stitutions which are most truly American were never in England. 
The story of Holland's direct influence on the English-speaking world 
is an omitted chapter." 

While the Puritans were persecuting those who did not share their 
narrow views of heaven, setting up blue laws and the stocks, manu- 
facturing iron manacles for the slave trade, and enriching themselves 
at the expense of the Indians, the Pastorius settlement was spreading 
the light of intelligence and impressing its stamp upon the American 
character in a different manner. "Here was raised the first ecclesias- 
tical protest against slavery," writes Dr. Griffis, "and here the first 
book condemning it was written. Here, also, was printed the first 
Bible in a European tongue (German), the first treaties on the 
philosophy of education, the largest and most sumptuous piece of 
colonial printing; and here was the first literary center and woman's 
college established in America, Pennsylvania led off in establishing 
the freedom of the press (John Peter Zenger), in reform of criminal 
law, in reform of prisons, in awarding to accused persons the right 
of counsel for defense. In not a few features now deemed peculiarly 
American, besides that of honoring the Lord's day, the State founded 
by William Penn is the land of first things, and the shining example. 
Well, who was William Penn?" continues the writer. "He was the 
son of a Dutch mother, Margaret Jasper, of Rotterdam. Dutch was 
his native tongue, as well as English." 

With the greater part of these civic virtues we find the Crefeld 
settlement closely identified as well as the Dutch — and therefore 
Germanic, in contrast to the Anglo-Saxon — influence, for Pastorius 
himself was the author of the first protest against slavery on Ameri- 
can soil. To this historic pioneer a monument was to be erected in 
1917 at Germantown. The statue by Albert Jaegers, sculptor of 
Steuben in Lafayette Park, Washington, was ready for unveiling in 
that year but boarded up, as the war between Germany and the 
United States had been proclaimed in the meantime. For many 
months a systematic agitation was conducted by certain pseudo- 
patriotic societies to prevent the unveiling of the monument, on the 

179 



ground that it was designed to serve pro-German propaganda; the 
proposition was made to destroy it and fill its place with cannons 
captured from the Germans by troops, including men from German- 
town. Among those so agitating were the Germantown Federation, 
Junior Order United American Mechanics, the Order of Independent 
Americans, the Stonemen's Fellowship, the Patriotic Order Sons of 
America, the Sons of Veterans, the Loyal Orange Lodge No. 39, the 
Fraternal Patriotic Americans, and others. Petitions and resolutions 
of protest were addressed to Representative J. Hampton Moore, to 
whose efforts was due the appropriation of $25,000 for the monu- 
ment, to Senator Penrose and to the Secretary of War, under whose 
jurisdiction are all monuments built at the expense of the people. 
The leader of the campaign was one Raymond O. Bliss. This was 
not in the heat of the war excitement, but in November, 1919, a year 
after the armistice had been signed. 

Comment .is hardly necessary. It almost seems that it is deliber- 
ately desired to deny recognition to any American historical character 
not of English origin, for in Pastorius is embodied one of the strong- 
est spirits that reacted upon the educ. tion, refinement and spiritual 
life of the American people; the protest against human slavery — 
slavery for which the Puritans were forging the shackles — adopted 
by the conference of German Quakers, April 18, 1688, is in the hand- 
writing of Pastorius. A better understanding of him and his little band 
was entertained by John Greenleaf Whittier, when he wrote his "lines 
on reading the message of Governor Ritner of Pennsylvania, in 1836": 

And that bold-hearted yeomanry, honest and true. 
Who, haters of fraud, give to labor its due; 
Whose fathers of old sang in concert with thine. 

On the banks of Swatara, the songs of the Rhine, — 
The German-born pilgrims, who first dared to brave 
The scorn of the proud in the cause of the slave: — * * * 
They cater to tyrants? They rivet the chain. 
Which their fathers smote ofif, on the negro again? 

The American author, E. Bettle, in "Notices of Negro Slavery in 
America," says of the above body of men and their action: "To this 
body of humble, unpretending and almost unnoticed philanthropists 
belongs the honor of having been the first association who ever re- 
monstrated against negro slavery." 

Though disapproving their habits of drinking and hearty feasting at 
weddings and funerals. Dr. Rush, in his "Essays, Literary, Moral and 
Philosophical," page 220, says: "If they possess less refinement than 
their Southern neighbors, who cultivate their land with slaves, they 
possess also more republican virtue." They introduced glass-blowing 
and iron manufacture as early as colonial conditions would allow, 

180 



and the establishment of the first iron foundry in America was the 
work of Baron Stiegel. They confuted Franklin's fear of their grow- 
ing influence in determining the policy of the province by responding 
as ardently to the call of patriotism in 1775-76 as Massachusetts. 

The German newspaper in Philadelphia, the "Staatsbote," pub- 
lished by Henry Miller — later the official printer of Congress — was 
one of the papers that fanned the flames of rebellion. It was read 
as far as the Valley of Virginia. The edition of March 19, 1776, con- 
tains an appeal to the Germans beginning: "Remember that your 
forefathers immigrated to America to escape bondage and to enjoy 
liberty." (Virginia Magazine, vol. x, pp. 45 ff.) 

History is strangely silent about any similar intellectual and cul- 
tural currents emanating from the English settlements of the early 
period, though latterly giving birth to ' a group of historians and 
poets who wove the garb of romance around every green New England 
hillside and embalmed every local event in poetic legend. While in 
Germantown the printing press was turning out Bibles and works of 
science and learning, and the people were laying the foundation of 
paper mills and type foundries, a harsh spirit of intolerance, super- 
stition and religious asceticism was the rule in the Bay Colony. 

American colonial history reveals the fact that Englishmen, while 
boastful of the liberty of conscience which they claim as a divine 
heritage, differed from the Dutch and other Teutonic settlers in 
American as foremost in seeking to impose feligious restrictions upon 
others and in offending against the doctrines of personal and religious 
liberty. There was very little of real democracy in the Bay Colony, 
but much aristocracy, according to Dr. William Elliot Griffis; for only 
church members had a right to vote. These Puritans could not toler- 
ate the men of other ways of thinking, like the Quakers and the 
Baptists who came among them, whom they beat, branded and 
hanged. Both in Holland and America, this authority continues, the 
Pilgrim Fathers were better treated by the Dutch than by the Puri- 
tans. "Toleration is a virtue which American have not learned from 
England or from the Puritans of New England. For the origins of 
the religious liberty which we enjoy we must look to the Annabaptists, 
William the Silent and the Dutch republic." But the Colony did not 
a little trade in slave'^, and one of its industries was the making of 
manacles for the supply of the African man-stealers and traders in 
human flesh. 

The influence on American life which flowed from the settlements 
of the Puritans and from Pennsylvania under the charter held by 
William Penn, was as distinct as night and day. From the ultimate 
confluence of these two divergent currents of civilization American 
life and institutions received a certain character of harmony which 
concretely, may be called Americanism. Had the Puritan current 
remained uninfluenced by that which flowed from Pennsylvania and 

181 



New York, our country would have had the distinct stamp of bigoted 
middle-class England, leavened to some extent by the gentry spirit 
of slave-holding Virginia, and we should justly have been called an 
English, or even Anglo-Saxon people. 

But as numerous writers from other than New England regions, 
have shown, those institutions which we have commonly been taught 
to be English institutions, did not exist in England, but were brought 
to America from Holland and the continent, or developed here. The 
written ballot came from Emden in Germany; freedom of conscience 
was the common possession of the Teuton peoples, and not of English- 
men. When the Massachusetts Bay Colony numbered 3,000 settlers, 
there were but 350 freemen among them, as the condition of free- 
manship was made, not a property or educational test, but a religious 
qualification. It was not till 1641 that a code of laws was adopted. Prior 
to this, they had been governed by the common law of England and 
the precepts of the Bible. 

Much has been written of religious and political oppression at home 
which drove many Germans to settle in Pennsylvania and New York; 
but the New England settlement owed its founding and growth 
entirely to religious persecutions at home. If James I chastised the 
Dissenters with whips, his son Charles chastised them with scorpions. 
It was William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, above all men, who 
visited bitter persecutions upon the Puritans in the reign of Charles, 
and it was Laud who caused the building of the English common- 
wealth in the New World. The great migration set in with the 
ascendancy of Laud. More than 1,000 came in 1630, and as the policy 
of the king and Laud became more intolerable, the tide increased in 
volume. The people came, not singly, nor as families merely, but 
frequently as congregations, led by their pastors. On March 18, 1919, 
the British Consul presented the City of Boston with a casket made 
from the rails of the docks in the Old Guild Hall at Boston, England, 
wherein 1,620 of the Puritan refugees were tried for non-conformist 
proceedings. 

The religious dififerences which the Puritans fought out — and have 
never fought to a conclusion — in the New World, the Germans and 
Hollanders had decided in the Thirty Years War. Politically and 
religiously, the Puritans were uncompromisingly intolerant to all. They 
expelled Roger Williams for denying the right of the magistrate to 
punish for violation of the first table of the Decalogue; for denying 
the right of compelling one to take an oath, denouncing the union of 
church and state and pronouncing the King's patent void on the 
ground that the Indians were the true owners of the soil. In 1656 
they persecuted the Quakers; in 1692 they hanged witches. Harvard 
College was founded in 1636 by the Puritan clergy. Nowhere in the 
world was paternalism carried to such extremes as in New England. 

182 



The State was founded on the Hebrew Old Testament and religion 
was its life. The entire political, social and industrial policy was 
built on religion, and Puritanism was painfully stern and somber. 

Had this civilization been gradually extended, uninfluenced by the 
institutions which were brought over from the continent by the Hol- 
landers, German Palatines and Delaware Swedes, we should have to 
form a radically different conception of the American of today. The in- 
fluence of the Puritans continues to make itself still felt in manifesta- 
tions of bigotry and intolerance in the form of prohibition, blue laws, 
race antagonism, etc. Out of its midst have arisen many great and 
free minds, like beautiful orchids out of a swamp, but rarely great 
minds uninfluenced by education flowing from or gained on the con- 
tinent of Europe, while the rank and file at heart remains what it 
always was, an imponderable mass, excluding light, dealing with 
external forms and interpreting the passions of life and the spiritual 
institutions of soul and mind by the fixed standards of an obsolete 
philosophy, and continues to be harsh, intolerant, hostile and fanatical. 

In 1631, Roger Williams arrived at Nantasket. He was a radical 
who claimed that no one should be bound to maintain worship against 
his own consent, and that the land belonged to the Indians and they 
ought to be paid for it. The Massachusetts Bay Colony ordered 
Williams to leave, and when he and five friends took up -lands in 
Rhode Island, the Plymouth men notified him that the land he had 
chosen was under their control and intimated that he must move 
on. The next person to come into contact with colonial intolerance 
was Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, "a pure woman of much intellectual 
power," but for whose preaching and teaching there was no room in 
Massachusetts. The General Court, after deciding that Mrs. Hutch- 
inson was "like Roger Williams or worse," banished her. With 
William Codington and others she bought Rhode Island from the 
Indians and began the colonies of Portsmouth and Newport. In 1638 
Rev. John Wheelwright was expelled from Massachusetts for sym- 
pathy with Mrs. Hutchinson. 

The Maryland English were more liberal, but their laws did not 
protect Jews or those who rejected the divinity of Christ. When the 
Commonwealth was established in England, its Commissioners in 
Maryland acted in a most intolerant manner, allowing no Catholics 
to have a seat in the legislature. They repealed the statute of tolera- 
tion and prohibited Catholic worship. In the Carolinas all Christians 
lived harmoniously together until Lord Granville attempted to remove 
the religious privileges of the Colonists, by excluding all who were 
not members of the Anglican Church from the Colonial legislature. 

Massachusetts, in 1656, passed a law pronouncing the death sentence 
on any Quaker who, having once been banished, should return to the 

183 



Colony. Under this law four were actually hanged. In 1692 hundreds 
of people accused of witchcraft were thrown into prison; nineteen 
were hanged; one, an old man, was pressed to death, and two died 
in jail before the popular madness had run its course. 

A valuable contribution to the history of religious intolerance in 
our country, the result of English civilization, is contained in "Ameri- 
can State Papers Bearing on Sunday Legislation," revised and enlarged 
edition compiled and annotated by William Addison Blakely of the 
Chicago Bar and lecturer at the University of Chicago; foreword by 
Thomas M. Cooley. Published by "Religious Liberty," Washington, 
D. C. Here we get the text of the first Sunday law on American soil, 
passed in Virginia in 1610: 

Every man or woman shall repair in the morning to the divine 
service and sermon preached upon the Sabbath Day, and in the 
afternoon to divine service and catechising, upon pain for the 
first fault to lose their provision and allowance for the whole 
week following (provisions were held in common at that day) ; 
for the second to lose the said allowance and also to be whipt; 
for the third to suffer death. Whipping meant that the offender 
shall by order of such justice or justices, receive on the bare 
back ten lashes well laid on. 

In Massachusetts the law provided various penalties, according to 
the gravity of the offense. Ten shillings or be whipped for profaning 
the Lord's day; death for presumptuous Sunday desecration; fines for 
traveling on the Lord's day; boring tongue with red-hot iron, sitting 
upon the gallows with a rope around the offender's neck, etc., at the 
discretion of the Court of Assizes and General Goal Delivery. ("Acts 
and Laws of the Province of Mass. Bay 1692-1719," p. 110). It was 
pretty much the same in Connecticut, where the laws explicitly pro- 
hibited "walking for pleasure," while Maryland provided "death with- 
out benefit of clergy for blasphemy." Practically every English colony 
had similar laws and ordinances. We read in Jefferson's "Notes on 
Virginia" (1788, p. 167): 

The first settlers were immigrants from England, of the Eng- 
lish Church, just at a point of time when it was flushed with a 
complete victory over the religion of other persuasions. Pos- 
sessed, as they became, of the power of making, administering 
and executing the laws, they showed equal intolerance in this 
country with their Presbyterian brethren who had emigrated 
to the Northern government. . . . Several acts of the Virginia 
Assembly, of 1659, 1662 and 1693, had made it penal in parents 
to refuse to have their children baptized, and prohibited the 
unlawful assembling of Quakers, had made it penal for any 
master of a vessel to bring a Quaker into the State, had ordered 
those already there, and such as should come hereafter, to be 
imprisoned until they should abjure the country — provided a 
milder penalty for the first and second return, but death for 

184 



their third. If no capital executions took place here, as did in 
New England, it was not owing to the moderation of tlie 
Church, or spirit of the Legislature, as may be inferred from 
the law itself; but to historical circumstances which have not 
been handed down to us. 

William H. Taft, when President, said: "We speak with great 
satisfaction of the fact that our ancestors came to this country to 
establish freedom of religion. Well, if you are to be exact, they came 
to establish freedom of their own religion, and not the freedom of 
anybody else's religion. The truth is that in those days such a thing 
as freedom of religion was not understood." 

Just what American freedom was at the time that English influence 
was at high tide, unleavened by the liberal and tolerant ideas brought 
over from the European continent, may be inferred from the fol- 
lowing extract from the "Columbian Sentinel" of December, 1789, 
quoted in "American State Papers": 

The tithingman also watched to see that "no young people 
walked abroad on the even of the Sabbath," that is, on the 
Saturday night (after sundown). He also marked and reported 
all those who "lye at home" and others who "prophanely be- 
haved," "lingered without dores at meeting times on the Lord's 
Dale," all "the sons of Belial strutting about, setting on fences, 
and otherwise desecrating the day." These last two offenders 
were first admonished by the tithingman, then "sett in stocks," 
and then cited before the Court. They were also confined in 
the cage on the meeting house green, with the Lord's Day 
sleepers. The tithingman could arrest any who walked or rode 
too fast in pace to and from meeting, and he could arrest any 
who "walked or rode unnecessarily on the Sabbath." .Great and 
small alike were under his control. 

Even General Washington while President was interfered witli oi 
one occasion by "the tithingman." 

Propaganda in the United States. — It has been charged that 
though a large number of American newspapers were controlled in 
England through Lord Northcliffe, a joint commission of English, 
French and Belgian propagandists was deemed necessary early in 
the war to create public sentiment in the United States in favor of 
intervention on the side of the European Allies through the process 
of "retaining" a number of prominent speakers as attorneys and 
employing a staff of well-known writers, novelists and poets to 
arouse us from our state of neutrality. A similar policy was followed 
in other countries, and in the course of an interview with Vicente 
Blasco Ibanez, the Spanish novelist, author of "The Four Horsemen 
of the Apocalypse" (in which the Germans are pictured in most repel- 
lent color), the New York "Times" of October 18, 1919, printed the 
following significant paragraph: 

185 



Ibanez said the actual writing of "The Four Horsemen of 
the Apocalypse" was done in four months in time spared from 
his official work of writing a weekly chronicle of the war 
and directing the Allied propaganda as an agent of the French 
Government. 

This frank statement will tend to cause "The Four Horsemen of the 
Apocalypse," which was hailed as "the greatest novel of the war" by 
the literary critics on the newspapers, and many persons ignorant of 
the design concealed within the pages of the novel, to appear in a 
somewhat different light from that inspired by a belief in the untainted 
integrity of the author. 

The English propaganda bureau for the United States, located in 
New York, was in charge of Louis Tracy, an English novelist. In 
an interview with Tracy, published in the New York "Evening Sun" 
of November 10, 1919, the author exposes frankly the methods pursued 
by himself and staff in fostering the British cause by attacks on the 
German and Irish element in the United States and in furthering 
libels of the enemy through the medium of the American press. In- 
cidentally he is quoted as follows: 

The great part of my work, of course, was the press. We 
began that during the first winter of the war, and it covered 
every phase of magazine and newspaper publication. . . . We 
had at our disposal the services of writers and scholars who 
made it possible for us to find out, at any particular moment 
or crisis, special information for articles about any event, place 
or person. . . . The growth of the work of the British Bureau 
of Information may be estimated by the fact that the working 
force grew from a mere nine at the time of Mr. Balfour's installa- 
tion of the office to fifty-four at the end of the war. 

For the entire two years of our participation in the war, and for a 
period long antedating that event, the American people were under 
the hypnosis of a propaganda conducted with serpent tongues and 
poisoned pens by alien agents, spitting and hissing venom in the 
interest of England and France. Mr. Tracy tells us that other means 
employed were "war posters which went all over the country and 
which are still going." 

The British Bureau of Information was the headquarters of "writers, 
journalists and authors, dramatists and poets, who turned over to us 
special articles or descriptions or pieces of art, to be relayed to the 
periodicals." And he adds: "There was also, perhaps most in the 
public eye, the almost endless chain of English men and women who 
came over during the war to speak under the auspices of the British 
Government upon different aspects of the war. These did not include 
the speakers and writers who came over here upon their own initiative 
and for pecuniary benefit. We were not responsible for them. But 

186 



we did look after and made arfangejments for all the speakers who 
were sent over by the Government. And they were legion!" 

These, in the estimation of Tracy, were as much a part of the 
militant forces as the actual fighters, for he says: "No war in the 
history of mankind has been fought with so many aids from the army 
of intelligence, with so many pens and typewriters and cartooning 
pencils conscripted in the same army with the line man, the tank and 
the bird man." 

Need we be surprised that the last bulwark of resistance to this 
insidious propaganda was swept away? How the British Bureau of 
Information must have laughed in its sleeve and rejoiced when the 
fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters of the 17,000 American boys 
of German descent who bled in France were treated as criminal aliens 
in their own country under the spell of the British propaganda? 

The French propaganda bureau was busy in a similar manner. 
"The Dial" of February 8, 1919, has this to say: 

By 1916 the simple installation in the rear of the Quai d'Orsay 
Ministry had evolved into the famous Maison de la Presse, 
which occupied, with its many bureaus, a large six-story build- 
ing on the Rue Francois Premier. This was one of the busiest 
hives of wartime Paris. There the promising novelist, the art 
critic, the publicist, or the well-recommended "belle chanteuse," 
as well as the more vulgar film operator and press agent, found 
directions and material support for patriotiotic activities in the 
"propaganda" From the Maison de la Presse were dispatched 
to every neutral and entente nation select "missions." The 
chief focus of all this Allied propaganda was the United States, 
especially Washington and New York, though itinerant pro- 
pagandists in every variety have covered every section of the 
country. By this time the English propaganda, also, was in 
full blast, under the blunt leadership of Lord Northclifife, with 
a Minister at home — in the person of Lord Beaverbrook — all to 
itself. In those days Fifth Avenue became a multi-colored 
par5.de of Allied propaganda. One could scarcely dine without 
meeting a fair propagandist or distinguished Frenchman or 
titled Englishman (titles in war being chiefly for American con- 
sumption!), or enter a theatre without suffering some secret or 
overt stimulation from the propaganda, etc. 

Chief of the French propagandists was Andre Cheradame, who, 
when President Wilson at one time during the peace confab threat- 
ened to bolt the conference, rose to the boldness of proposing to 
start a conspiracy against him in his own country. According to the 
Paris "Le Populaire," early in 1919: 

"Cheradame, who was received and treated in a very friendly 
way by Woodrow Wilson, moved that "highly paid propagandists 
be sent at once to the United States to get in touch with Presi- 
dent Wilson's opponents, in particular with those who are mem- 

187 



bers of the Senate, as the Constitution of the United States 
gives that body power to veto any treaty signed by the Presi- 
dent." 

To this extent had the success of anti-German propaganda in our 
country encouraged the agents of the French government! In the New 
York "Evening Post" of March 3, 1919, David Lawrence, the regular 
correspondent of that paper, then sojourning in Paris, speaks of 
"propaganda bureaus, known to the public of America, however, as 
'bureaus of education' or 'committees on public information,' are con- 
ducted by most of the Allied governments in different parts of the 
world." He points out that in Paris the method largely followed was 
that of bestowing social attention and decorations "on American 
civilians to make them support all sorts of causes." 

The Vienna correspondent of the "Germania," Berlin, writing the 
latter part of June, 1919, refers to "the utterances of a French general 
staff officer,' who asserts that every intelligent person in France knows 
that Germany did not desire the war. Germany could not have wished 
anything better for herself than the preservation of peace, but France 
was obliged to make propaganda for her own cause, and it had served 
the purpose of gaining the accession of the Americans." 

While English and French propaganda was thus conducted openly 
in the American press, a Committee of the United States Senate 
headed by Overman, was filling the newspapers with alarming ac- 
counts of German propaganda — conducted before the United States 
declared war on the Imperial German Government, the net result 
being a report of glittering generalities accusing everybody indis- 
criminately and convi'cting no one. 

To what extent our own novelists,- musical critics, film producers 
and "belles chanteuse" were tainted, it is not intended to discuss in 
this place. That some of our writers were hard put to find cause tor 
describing the German people as Huns, a menace to civilization and 
a blot on humanity, is evidenced by a remarkable letter written to the 
New York "Times" by Gertrude Atherton, one of the most outspoken 
enemies of Germany, in the issue of July 6, 1915 (p. 8, cols. 7 and 8). 
Not to print it were an unpardonable omission, as it constitutes an 
indictment of German civilization which none should miss reading. 
She writes: 

During the seven years that I lived in Munich, I learned to 
like Germany better than any State in Europe. I liked and ad- 
mired the German people; I never suffered from an act of rude- 
ness, and I was never cheated of a penny. I was not even taxed 
until a year before I left, because I made no money out of the 
country and turned in a considerable amount in the course of a 
year. When my maid went to the Rathaus to pay my taxes 
(moderate enough), the official apologized, saying that he had 
disliked to send me a bill, but the increasing cost of the army 

188 



compelled the country to raise money in every way possible. 
This was in 1908. The only disagreeable German I met was my 
landlord, and as we always dodged each other in the house or 
turned an abrupt corner to avoid encounter on the street, we 
steered clear of friction. And he was the only landlord I had. 

I left Munich with the greatest regret, and up to the moment 
of the declaration of war I continued to like Germany better 
than any country in the world except my own. 

The reason I left was significant. I spent, as a rule, seven 
or eight months in Munich, then a similar period in the United 
States, unless I traveled. I always returned to my apartment 
with such joy that when I arrived at night I did not go to bed 
lest I forget in sleep how overjoyed I was to get back to that 
stately and picturesque city, so prodigal with every form of 
artistic and aesthetic gratification. 

But that was the trouble. For as long a time after my return 
as it took to write the book I had in mind I worked with the 
stored American energy I had within me; then for months in 
spite of good resolutions, and some self-anathema I did nothing. 
What was the use? 

The beautiful German city, so full of artistic delight, was 
made to live in, not to work in. The entire absence of poverty 
in that city of half a million inhabitants alone gave it an air 
of illusions, gave one the sense of being the guest of a hospitable 
monarch who only asked to provide a banquet for all that could 
appreciate. I look back upon Munich as the romance of my life, 
the only place on this globe that came near to satisfying every 
want of my nature. 

And that is the reason why, in a sort of panic, I abruptly 
pulled up stakes and left for good and all. It is not in the true 
American idea to be content; it means running to seed, a weak- 
ening of the will and the vital force. If I remained too long in 
that lovely land — so admirably governed that I could not have 
lost myself, or my cat, had I possessed one — I should in no long 
course yield utterly to a certain resentfully admitted tendency 
to dream and drift and live for pure beauty; finally desert my 
country with the comfortable reflection: Why all this bustle, this 
desire to excel, to keep in the front rank, to find pleasure in 
individual work, when so many artistic achievements are ready- 
made for all to enjoy without effort? For — here is the point — 
an American, the American of to-day — accustomed to high speed, 
constant energy, nervous tenseness, the uncertainty, and the 
right, cannot cultivate the leisurely German method, the almost 
scientific and unpersonal spirit that informs every profession 
and branch of art. It is our own way or none for if^ Americans. 

Therefore, loving Germany as I did, and with only the most 
enchanting memories of her, if I had not immediately permitted 
the American spirit to assert itself last August and taken a 
hostile and definite stand against the German idea (which in- 
cludes, by the way, the permanent subjection of women), I 
should have been a traitor, for I know out of the menace I felt 
to my own future, as bound up with an assured development 
under insidious influences, what the future of my country, which 

189 



stands for the only true progress in the world today, and a far 
higher ideal of mortal happiness than the most benevolent 
paternalism can bestow, had in store for it, with Germany 
victorious, and America (always profoundly moved by success, 
owing to her very practicality) disturbed, but compelled to 
admire. 

The Germans living here, destitute as their race seems to be of 
psychology, when it comes to judging other races, rnust know 
all this; so I say that they are traitors if they have taken the 
oath of allegiance to the United States. If they have not, and 
dream of returning one day to the fatherland, then I have 
nothing to say, for there is no better motto for any man than: 
"My country, right or wrong." 

The process of reasoning here plainly is: Germany is such a well- 
governed, well-behaved, well-groomed, honest, beautiful, seductive 
country that if I do not side with her enemies I shall fall completely 
under her spell, and therefore, having left such a model country, 
every German who comes to the United States to live must be a 
traitor to America. Ingenious reasoning! 

PitcheT, Molly. — Not only was Barbara Fritchie of German de- 
scent, as shown elsewhere, but so also was the famous "Molly 
Pitcher" of Revolutionary fame, whose story is known to every 
American patriot as the woman who brought water to the fighting 
men in the battle line in a large pitcher, to which she owed her 
name in history. Her maiden name was Marie Ludwig, and she 
was born of good Palatine stock October 13, 1754, in New Jersey. 
Her husband was John Hays, a gunner, who was wounded at the 
battle of Monmouth. There being no man available, Molly took his 
place and served the cannon so efficiently, loading and firing with 
such dexterity, that after the battle Washington appointed her to 
the rank of sergeant with a sergeant's pay. 

Press Attacks in Congress. — Representative Calloway quoted in the 
Congressional Record of February 9, 1917: 

Mr. Chairman, under unanimous consent, I insert in the Record at 
this point a statement showing the newspaper combination, which ex- 
plains their activity in this matter, just discussed by the gentleman 
from Pennsylvania (Mr. Moore): 

"In Marcji, 1915, the J. P. Morgan interests, the steel, shipbuilding 
and powder interests and their subsidiary organizations, got together 
12 men high up in the newspaper world and employed them to select 
the most influential newspapers in the United States and sufficient 
number of them to control generally the policy of the daily press of 
the United States. 

"These 12 men worked the problem out by selecting 179 newspapers, 
and then began, by an elimination process, to retain only those neces- 

190 



sary for the purpose of controlling the general policy of the daily 
press throughout the country. They found it was only necessary 
to pjrchase the control of 25 of the greatest papers. The 25 papers 
were agreed upon; emissaries were sent to purchase the policy, na- 
tional and international, of these papers; an agreement was reached; 

' the policy of the papers was bought, to be paid for by the month; 
an editor was furnished to each paper to properly supervise and edit 
information regarding the questions of preparedness, militarism, finan- 
cial policies and other things of national and international nature 
considered vital to the interests of the purchasers. 

"This contract is in existence at the present time, and it accounts 
for the news columns of the daily press of the country being filled 

^ with all sorts of preparedness arguments and misrepresentations as 
to the present condition of the United States army and navy and 
the possibility and probability of the United States being attacked by 
foreign foes. 

"This policy also includes the suppression of everything in opposi- 
tion to the wishes of the interests served. The effectiveness of this 
scheme has been conclusively demonstrated by the character of stuflf 
carried in the daily press throughout the country since March, 1915. 
They have resorted to anything necessary, to commercialize public 
sentiment and sandbag the National Congress into making extrava- 
gant and wasteful appropriations for the army and navy under the 
false pretense that it was necessary. Their stock argument is that it 

' is 'patriotism.' They are playing on every prejudice and passion of 
the American people." 

Pathfinders. — In reply to the question, "Who are the twelve great- 
" est Americans of German descent?" the following were named by a 
small committee who conferred upon the matter: 

Franz Daniel Pastorius, founder of Germantown and author of the 
^ first protest against slavery on American soil. 

Conrad Weiser, "the first who combined the activity of a pioneer 
with the outlook of a statesman." — Benson J. Lossing. 
- Governor Jacob Leisler, acting governor of New York, the first 
martyr' to the cause of American independence. 

Heinrich Melchior Muhlenberg, founder of the Lutheran Church 
in America and father of General Muhlenberg and of the first Speaker 
of the House of Representatives. 
i^ John Peter Zenger, founder of the freedom of the press in America. 
|_^. David Rittenhouse, America's first great scientist. 
i' General Frederick von Steuben, the drillmaster of the American 
U Revolutionary army, who received the surrender of Cornwallis at 
Yorktown. 

191 



John Jacob Astor, the pioneer and pathfinder in American indus- 
trial enterprise. 

Carl Schurz, Union general, diplomat, United States Senator and 
Cabinet officer; founder of the Civil Service. 

Francis Lieber, politician, encyclopedist, college professor, who 
first codified the laws of war for the United States government. 

Ottmar Mergenthaler, inventor of the typesetting machine. 

Charles P. Steinmetz, one of the world's greatest electricians. 

Poison Gas. — That the Germans were not the first to use poison 
gas in warfare, that the practice originated with the English, and that 
the French used gases in the world war before the Germans, was well_ 
known to thousands in a position to inform others, but no denial oi 
this falsehood has ever been made. The first recorded use of poison 
gas in modern times was in connection with the bombardment of 
Colenso by the English during the Boer War. The fact is testified 
to by General von der Golz in a book describing the English military 
operations against the Boers, which he witnessed as German military 
attache, and is verified in a number of accounts of the war against 
the South African republics. The guns used against Colenso to dis- 
charge the gas and kill the defenders by asphyxiation were brought 
from the British dreadnought, "Terrible." It was a typical English 
invention. At first there was no thought of using gas in land warfare. 
It was designed to be discharged by a shell which should penetrate 
the armor-plate of an enemy vessel. A poisoned gas-shell exploding; 
inside of another vessel was expected to kill everybody under deck. 
When it was found impossible to effect the surrender of Colenso, the 
guns were used there for the first time in field operations, as stated. 
These facts are further corroborated by Mr. George A Schreiner, 
Associated Press correspondent during the recent war, author of 
"The Iron Ration," and a participant in the defense of Colenso, who 
to this day is feeling the effect of the gas. F 

The charge that the Germans were the first to use gas bombs and 
the attempt to represent their employment of such bombs as acts of 
barbarism was ridiculed by Gustav Herve, the editor of the Paris 
"La Guerre Sociale," in these words: "There is a bit of hypocrisy in this 
show of indignation against the use of asphyxiating gas. Have we 
forgotten the incredible stories that were told about the effects of 
turpinite when in August the Germans were marching toward Paris 
and the craziest stories were in general circulation? People in fits 
of ecstacy told others about the murderous effect of the asphyxiating 
bombs of the celebrated inventor. 'Why, my deaf sir, 70,000 Germanr 
were simply stricken down; whole regiments were destroyed by as- 
phyxiation.' I remember very distinctly. No one protested. As long 
as we believed in the marvel of Turpin's asphyxiating powder, Turpin 

192 



was hailed as a hero. Then why this absurd cry, this hypocritical 
attempt to condemn the Germans for inventing a powder, that in com- 
parison with the turpinite we called to our aid in the hour of our 
greatest distress, appears to be as gentle as the holy St. John. Instead 
of blaming the Germans for utilizing asphyxiating gases, we might 
better blame ourselves for permitting the enemy to outdo us in in- 
ventive genius." 

General Amos A. Fries, head of the Chemical Service of the Amer- 
ican Expeditionary Forces, quoted in the February, 1919, issue of 
"Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering," described the use of poison 
gas as "the most humane method of fighting." Only 30 per cent, of 
American casualties and 5 per cent, of the deaths were due to gas. 
He held that the situation was similar to that when gunpowder was 
first utilized, a practice "universally frowned upon as unfair and un- 
sportsmanlike, yet it endured." In a similar vein General Sibert 
testified before a Senate Committee in June, 1919. 

Penn, William. — Founder of Pennsylvania, under whose jurisdic- 
tion the first Pennsylvania German settlements were effected. His 
mother was a Dutch woman, Margaret Jasper, of Rotterdam. Dutch 
was Penn's native tongue, as well as English. He was a scholar 
versed in Dutch law, history and religion. He preached in Dutch 
and won thousands of converts and settlers, inviting them to his 
Christian Commonwealth. (Dr. William Elliot Griffis.) Oswald 
Seidensticker ("Bilder aus der Deutsch-Pennsylvanischen Geschichte," 
Steiger, New York, p. 82) writes: 

"For more than a century Germantown remained true to its 
name, a German town. William Penn in 1683 preached there, in 
Tunes Kunder's house in the German language, and General 
Washington in 1793 attended German service in the Reformed 
Church." 

Pilgrim Society. — A powerful organization in New York City, nom- 
inally for the promotion of the sentiment of brotherhood among 
Englishmen and Americans, but in reality to promote a secret move- 
ment to unite the United States with "the Mother Country," Eng- 
land, as advocated by Andrew Carnegie, the late Whitelaw Reid, 
and, as provided for in the secret will of Cecil Rhodes. Among its 
prominent members are the British Ambassador, J. Pierpont Mor- 
gan, Thomas W. Lamont, partner of Morgan; John Revelstoke 
Rathom, British-born editor of the Providence "Journal"; Adolph 
Ochs, owner of the New York "Times"; Ogden Mills Reid, Presi- 
dent New York "Tribune," and brother-in-law of the first Equerry 
to the King of England; James M. Beck and numerous other Wall 
Street corporation lawyers, and the underwriters of the Anglo-French 
war loan of $500,000,000 and Russian ruble loan. 

193 



Quitman, Johan Anton. — One of the most prominent and daring 
soldiers of the Mexican War; son of Friedrich Anton Quitman, a 
Lutheran minister at Rhinebeck-on-Hudson. Born 1798, took part in 
the war for the independence of Texas from Mexico, and in 1846 was 
made brigadier general. Fought with the greatest distinction at 
Monterey; first at the head of his command to reach the market- 
place of the hotly-contested city and raised the American flag on the 
church steeple. Was in command of the land batteries in 1847, and 
in conjunction with the American fleet bombarded Vera Cruz into 
surrender. Distinguished himself at Cerro Gordo, was brevetted 
Major General and voted a sword by Congress. On September 13, at 
the head of his troops, stormed Chapultepec, the old fortress of Monte- 
zuma, which was considered impregnable by the Mexicans, and on 
the following day opened the attack on Mexico City, which he entered 
September 15. Gen. Scott, as a mark of appreciation, appointed Quit- 
man governor of the city, in which capacity he served until peace was 
restored. He was later elected governor of Mississippi and elected to 
Congress by large majorities from 1855 to 1858, the year of his death. 
General Quitman had an eventful career, beginning as a teacher of 
German at Mount Airy College, Pennsylvania. He studied law and 
began to practice at Chillicothe, Ohio. Proceeding to Natchez, Miss., 
he became Chancellor of the Supreme Court, member of the Senate, 
in the State Legislature, then its president, participating in the 
Texas War for Independence, visited Germany and France, and on his 
return was appointed to the Federal bench. His father was born in 
Cleve, Rhenish Prussia, and was a brilliant scholar, high in the 
councils of the Lutheran church. 

Representation in Congress, 1779-1912. — Table compiled of the mem- 
bership of Congress from 1779 to and including the 62nd Congress: 

Total number of members of Senate and House from 

the 1st to the 62nd Congress 7,500 

Total number of members of Senate and House of for- 
eign birth, 1st to 62nd Congress 302 

Distributed as follows: 

Ireland 114 

England 47 

Germany 42 

Scotland Zl 

Canada • 23 

France 8 

Austria • • • • 5 

West Indies 4 

Norway 4 

Sweden 3 

194 



Wales • • . 4 

Hclland 2 

Switzerland •• 2 

Bermuda Islands 2 

Denmark . 

Brazil • • 

Azore Islands 

Madeira Islands 

Spanish Florida 



302 

Rhodes' Secret Will and Scholarships, Carnegie Peace Fund and 
Other Pan-Anglican Influences. — It is a well-established principle of 
strategy as practiced by diplomatists to arouse public attention to a 
supposed danger in order to divert it from a real one. Long ante- 
dating our association with England, secret plans were laid by far- 
seeing Englishmen, and sedulously fostered by their friends in the 
United States, to reclaim "the lost colonies" as a part of the United 
Kingdom, While the so-called German propaganda at best was di- 
rected toward keeping the United States out of the war, a subtle and 
deceptive propaganda was being conducted to enmesh us in European 
entanglements to such extent that retreat from a closer political union 
with England should become impossible. 

In order to arrive at a clear understanding of the sources from 
which such influences are proceeding, it is necessary to call the 
reader's attention to the secret will of Cecil Rhodes. This will is 
printed on pp. 68 and 69, Vol. I, Chapter VI, of "The Life of the Rt. 
Hon. Cecil Rhodes," by Sir Lewis Mitchell, and reads as follows: 

To and for the establishment, promotion and development of a 
secret society, the true aim of which and object whereof shall be 
the extension of British rule throughout the world, the perfect- 
ing of a system of emigration from the United Kingdom and of 
colonization of British subjects of all lands where the means of 
livelihood are attainable by energy, labor and enterprise, and 
especially the occupation by British settlers of the entire conti- 
nent of Africa, the Holy Land, the Valley of the Euphrates, the 
Islands of Cyprus and Canadia; the whole of South America and 
the Islands of the Pacific not heretofore possessed by Great 
Britain, the whole of the Malay Archipelago, the ultimate re- 
covery of the United States of America as an integral part of 
the British Empire; the inauguration of a system of Colonial 
representation in the Imperial Parliament, which may tend to 
weld together the disjointed members of the Empire, and finally 
the foundation of so great a 'power as to hereafter render wars 
impossible and promote the best interests of humanity. 

195 



Fourteen years later, in a letter to William T. Stead, dated August 
19 and September 3, 1891, Rhodes wrote as follows: 

What an awful thought it is that if we had not lost America, 
or if even now we could arrange with the present members of 
the United States Assembly and our own House of Commons, 
the peace of the world is secured for all eternity. We could 
hold your federal parliament five years at Washington and five 
years at London. ("The Pan-Angles," by Sinclair Kennedy; 
• published by Longmans, Green and Co., London and New York.) 

Mr. Kennedy writes further on this subject as follows: 

Not alone the federation of the Britannic nations, but the 
federation of the whole Pan-Angle people is the end to be 
sought. Behind Rhodes' "greater union in Imperial matters" 
lay his vision of a common government over all English-speak- 
ing people. If we are to preserve our civilization and its benefits 
to an individual civilization, we must avoid friction among our- 
selves and take a united stand before the world. Only a common 
government will insure this. 

These words have a remarkable resemblance to a declaration made 
by the late American Ambassador to Great Britain^ the Hon. Whitelaw 
Reid, in a speech delivered in London, July 17, 1902, when, speaking 
of Anglo-American relations, he employed these significant words: 

The time does visibly draw near when solidarity of race, if 
not of government, is to prevail. 

The similarity of sentiments expressed by two persons of different 
race and speaking at an interval of twelve years must strike anyone 
as deeply significant. We have here an agreement in that respect 
between Cecil Rhodes, Sinclair Kennedy and Whitelaw Reid. All three 
want a common government over the Britannic nations and the United 
States. 

It is known that the millions left by Cecil Rhodes for the express 
object of the "ultimate recovery of the United States of America as 
an integral part of the British Empire," have been invested in such 
a manner as to carry out as secretly as possible the purpose for which 
they were designed. Men may well stand appalled at the working of 
the Rhodes poison in the veins of American life. 

To its fatal operation may be attributed the rise of societies to 
promote Anglo-Saxon brotherhood. Pilgrim societies, movements to 
celebrate the centennary of English and American friendship ("farcical 
as that pretension is), the formation of peace treaties nominally most 
inclusive, but in reality designed to benefit Great Britain, and the 
gradual elimination from our public school books of all reference to 
the part played by England in our history, English designs against 
this country and savagery against its citizens, as well as all unpleasant 
diplomatic events between us and England that have been of such fre- 

196 



quent recurrence. To this influence may be attributed the movement 
to ignore the Fourth of July and substitute the Signing of the Magna 
Charta to be celebrated by American youths as the true origin of our 
independence, as proposed by Andrew Carnegie in placards which did, 
and possibly do yet adorn the walls of his free libraries. In the June 
number of the "North American Review" for 1893, Mr. Carnegie em- 
ployed the following significant words: 

Let men say what they will; I say that as surely as the sun 
in the heavens once shone upon Britain and America united, so 
surely is it one morning to rise, shine upon and greet again the 
reunited States — the British-American Union. 

Let us recall that it was Lord Bryce, the former British Ambassador 
to the United States, who advocated: 

"The recognition of a common citizenship, securing to the citizen 
of each, in the country of the other, certain rights not enjoyed by 
others." 

And that Lord Haldane, in a speech in Canada some years ago, 
broadly hinted at an ultimate union of the two countries. 

We find in "The Pan-Angles" of Mr. Kennedy a map of the world 
in which Great Britain, Canada, Australia and the United States are 
represented in a uniform color, to illustrate their solidarity. In the 
minds of the Pan-Angles the vision of the great Cecil Rhodes, backed 
by his countless millions, is approaching its realization. Rhodes held 
that "divine ideals, on which the progress of mankind depended, were 
for the most part the moving influence, if not the exclusive possession, 
of the Anglo-Saxon race, of which Great Britain is the head." ("The 
Right Hon. Cecil Rhodes," by Sir Thos. E. Fuller, p. 243). 

Rhodes' published will of July 1, 1899, has a broad provision for his 
American propaganda in paragraph 16: "And whereas I also desire to 
encourage and foster an appreciation of the advantages which I im- 
plicitly believe will result from the union of the English-speaking 
people throughout the world, and to encourage in the students from the 
United States of North America who will benefit from the American 
Scholarships to be established at the University of Oxford under my 
Will, an attachment to the country from which they have sprung," etc. 

The effect of the Rhodes American scholarship scheme was clearly 
set forth in the "Saturday Evening Post" of July 13, 1912, wherein the 
writer says:, 

"Twenty years hence and forever afterward there will be between 
two and three thousand men (Rhodes graduates) in the prime of life 
scattered over the English-speaking world, each of whom will have 
had impressed upon his mind at the most susceptible period the dreams 
of a union of our people." 

197 



In the "North American Review" for June, 1893, Mr. Carnegie 
already advocated the subordination of our fiscal policy to that of 
England. He said: 

"I do not shut my eyes to the fact that reunion, bringing free en- 
trance of British products, would cause serious disturbance to many 
manufacturing interests near the Atlantic Coast which have been built 
up under the protective tariff system. Judging from my knowledge 
of the American manufacturers, there are few who would not gladly 
make the necessary pecuniary sacrifices to bring about a reunion of 
the old home and the new." 

In a like manner Mr. Carnegie spoke at Dundee, in 1890, and in the 
"North American Review" he candidly stated: "National patriotism or 
pride cannot prove a serious obstacle in the way of reunion. . . . 
The new nation would dominate the world." 

The war has blinded us to many issues that affect our political 
future. With Lord Northcliffe admittedly in control of many im- 
portant American papers, there has been printed only what was ap- 
proved in London, and suppressed whatever menaced the peaceful 
pursuit of the policy of the proposed merger. It cropped out in the 
draft of the League of Nations, rejected by the United States Senate, 
which provided for six votes for Great Britain and her colonies and 
only one vote for the United States on all questions to be decided. 
Only a few Senators were alive to the danger, and the misguided 
public was so reluctant to hear the truth that Senator Reed of Miss- 
ouri, one of the first to protest, was for a time repudiated by the 
leaders of his party in his own State, and assailed on the platform 
when he attempted to speak in Oklahoma. 

The movement to anglicise the United States is making rapid 
progress. It had its inception in London and is conducted in this 
country under the auspices of pronounced Anglophiles in the name 
of the "English-Speaking Union," headed by former President Taft, 
with the following persons as vice presidents: George Haven Putnam, 
chairman of the organization committee; Albert Shaw, Ellery Sedg- 
wick, George Wharton Pepper, John A. Stewart, Otto H. Kahn, 
Charles C. Burlingham, Charles P. Howland, R. Harold Paget, Edward 
Harding, the Rev. Lyman P. Powell, E. H. Van Ingen, and Frank 
P. Glass. In London the organization is called the Anglo-American 
Society. At a meeting held in that city on June 26, 1919, presided 
over by Lord Bryce, an elaborate programme was agreed upon to 
carry the propaganda into the United States and England. To that 
end, Washington and the Puritan fathers, though the former headed 
the rebellion against England and the latter fled its shores to escape 
persecution, are to be employed as symbols of Anglo-American unity, 
and a great number of festivities and memorials are included in the 

198 . 



program, which will develop in the course of the year. Preparations 
are now being made for the 300th anniversary celebration of the land- 
ing of the Pilgrim Fathers. 

A Sulgrave Institution has been organized — Sulgrave Manor being 
the ancestral home of George Washington — which has raised $125,000 
in England and is raising a fund of $1,000,000 in this country. The 
use of the fund was explained by John A. Stewart, chairman of the 
board of governors, who said it was "to establish scholarships in 
English universities and later in this country, and also to refit Sul- 
grave Manor." King George was one of the first contributors to the 
English campaign, he said. 

On June 28, 1919, the King of England sent by cable a message to 
the President, in which he said: 

Mr. President, it is on this day one of our happiest thoughts 
that the American and British people, brothers in arms, will 
continue forever to be brothers in peace. United before by 
language, traditions, kinship and ideals, there has been set upon 
our fellowship the sacred seal of common sacrifice. 
During the Paris peace conference the New York "Times" of Feb- 
ruary 13, 1919, in a Paris correspondence, declared that there was 
complete Anglo-American concord, the program of the conference 
revealing a fundamental identity of aims and the understanding be- 
tween English-speaking peoples being never so complete as today. 
Former Attorney General Wickersham took the lead in proposing to 
remit England's enormous debt to us, explaining that we owe them 
that much for "holding back the Huns," and the proposition has been 
received with great favor by many of the 18,000 additional millionaires 
created by the war, meaning, of course, that England's burden shall 
be transferred to the shoulders of the American tax payers. 

Among the advocates of the merger are General Pershing, Lord 
Balfour, Chauncey M. Depew, James M. Beck, Lord Grey and the 
American bankers and great industrials, like Charles M. Schwab. Sur- 
rounded by distinguished men of England, General Pershing, in 
the Military Committee room of the House of Commons, dwelt with 
special pathos on the proposed Anglo-Saxon brotherhood. "I feel 
that the discharged and demobilized soldiers will carry with them 
into private life," he said, "the necessity for closer and firmer union, 
and that we may be united as peoples likewise forever." Subsequently 
he was made a Knight of the Bath by King George. 

At a meeting of the Pilgrim Society in New York, January 21, 1919, 
James M. Beck, recently made a "Bencher" in London, after review- 
ing England's achievements in. the war, said: 

England's triumphs are our triumphs, and our triumphs are 
England's triumphs. 
Lord Edward Grey, one of the principal figures in the events pre- 

199 



ceding and throughout the war, was sent as ambassador to the United 
States to foster the movement. Nominally, the movement is for the 
preservation of peace, which is represented as seriously imperiled from 
hour to hour unless the United States and England unite. To this 
end there is to be "an exchange of journalists" as well as scholars 
and professors. 

"The Nation," speaking of an address by Admiral Sims at the 
American Luncheon Club, on March 14, 1919, says: 

Admiral Sims referred to his remarks at the Guildhall several 
years ago, when he declared that Great Britain and the United 
States would be found together in the next war. Further, he 
said that in 1910, while cruising in European waters, he sub- 
mitted a secret report that in his opinion war could not be put 
off longer than four years. During the war a German diplo- 
matic official stated that there was an understanding between 
Great Britain and the United States whereby they would stand 
together if either went to war with Germany. A similar state- 
ment recently came to light in this country from a Dutch 
source. Professor Roland G. Usher, in his "Pan-Germanism," 
explicitly declares that, probably before the summer of the year 
1897, "an understanding was reached that in case of a war begun 
by Germany or Austria for the purpose of executing Pan-Ger- 
manism, the United States would promptly declare in favor of 
England and France, and would do her utmost to assist them." 
We do not attach too great importance to any of these state- 
ments; yet we should like to see this matter ventilated. If 
such an understanding was in force, did President Wilson know 
of it before Mr. Balfour and M. Viviani made their visit? Until 
three days before the war, the British Parliament knew nothing 
of a secret engagement that bound them hand and foot to 
France, and had been in force eight years; an engagement, 
moreover, that not only eight weeks ^3efore, they had been 
assured did not exist. Admiral Sims's remark gains interest 
from the fact that the regular diplomatic technique of such 
engagements is by way of "conversations" between military and 
naval attaches of the coquetting governments. In his book 
called "How Diplomats Make War," Mr. Francis Neilson, a 
member of the war-Parliament, traces the course of the military 
conversations authorized by the French and English Govern- 
ments, and shows their binding effect upon foreign policy. We 
should be much interested in hearing from Admiral Sims again; 
and we believe that a healthy and vigorous public curiosity 
about this subject would by no means come amiss. ("Nation.") 

The Lord High Chancellor, Viscount Finlay, after saying that 
"a wholly new era has opened between England and America," 
remarked that he was now at liberty to tell Ambassador Davis 
that it was he, as Attorney General, who had drafted all the 
British notes exchanged with the United States, and went on 
with a smile: 

"Ambassador Page used to say to me, 'My dear friend, don't 
hurry with the notes; they are not pressing.'" — New York 
"Globe." 

200 



How far has this alliance actually been realized by secret under- 
standings? In an article in the "Revue des Deux Mondes," in 1907, 
M. Andre Tardieu, the foreign editor of the Paris "Temps," accusing 
President Roosevelt of partisanship for the German Emperor in the 
Algeciras conference, distinctly charged him v^ith bad faith in this 
direction in view of the secret understanding between the United 
States and England. 

A formal treaty has not so far been arranged, but we may ask: 
In how far are we involved in a policy looking to the abdication of 
our sovereignty as an independent republic in view of statements such 
as were made unchallenged by Prof. Roland G. Usher in his book, 
"Pan-Germanism": 

First, that in 1897 there was a secret understanding between 
this country, England, France, and Russia, that in case of war 
brought on by Germany the United States would do its best to 
assist its three allies. 

Second, (page 151) that "certain events lead to the probability 
that the Spanish-American war was created in order to permit 
the United States to take possession of Spain's colonial pos- 
sessions." 

Third, that England possesses three immensely powerful allies 
— France, Russia, and the United States. These he constantly 
speaks of as the "Coalition." 

Fourth, that the United States was not permitted by England 
and France to build the Panama Canal until they were persuaded 
of the dangers of Pan-Germanism. 

In an interview published in the St. Louis "Star" of May 2, 1915, 
Prof. Usher confirmed these statements by saying that a verbal alliance 
is in existence between this country and the Allies. 

' Material support of the charge is furnished by the late British 
Secretary of the Colonies, the Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, who, in a 
statement in Parliament during the Boer war, referred to the treaty of 
alliance as "an agreement, an understanding, a compact, if you please." 
On November 30, 1899, Chamberlain delivered an epochal speech at 
Leicester against France for some unseemly cartooning of Queen Vic- 
toria. In his speech he threatened France with war and distinctly 
spoke of an Anglo-American union: "The union between England and 
America is a powerful factor for peace." (N. Murrel Morris, "Joseph 
Chamberlain, The Rt. Hon.", London, 1900, Hutchinson & Co., pub- 
lishers). Chamberlain further supported Prof. Usher in the latter's 
assertion that the treaty was verbal, as a written treaty must have the 
official sanction of the Senate. In this same Leicester speech, Mr. 
Chamberlain declared: 

To me it seems to matter little whether you have an alliance 
which is committed to paper, or whether you have an under- 
standing which exists in the minds of the statesmen of the re- 

201 



spective countries. An understanding perhaps is better than an 
alliance, which may stereotype arrangements, which cannot be 
accepted as permanent, in view of the changing circumstances 
from day to day. (Morris.) 

Cornelia Steketee Hulst, in her pamphlet, "Our Secret Alliance," 
quotes from a speech of Chamberlain as follows: 

I can go as far as to say tha^, terrible as war may be, even 
war itself would be cheaply purchased if in a great and noble 
cause the Stars and Stripes and the Union Jack should wave 
together in an Anglo-Saxon alliance. 

Already the thought of a merger and the loss of our identity as a 
republic is coursing in a dangerous form through the minds of the 
people. It has been said that if a question is harped upon con- 
tinuously for a sufficient period that people will go to war for the 
mere sake of putting the question out of their minds, and even now 
among the high and the low there is manifest a supine, an ominous 
spirit of submission to the surrender of their political independence 
rather than fight it as a form of open sedition. 

The Rhodes trust fund and the Carnegie peace fund have their 
priests and priestesses, witness the statement of Mrs, John Astor, 
chairman of the American Red Cross in England, quoted in the New 
York "Times" of March 5, 1915: "An alliance of the English-speak- 
ing nations would be the greatest ideal toward which to work." 
George Beer anticipated Mrs. Astor in the "Forum" for May, 1915: 

The only practical method is to embody the existing cordial 
feeling between the United States and England in a more or less 
formal alliance, so that the two countries can bring their joint 
influence and pressure to bear whenever their common in- 
terests and political principles may be jeopardized. 

In January, 1916, the late Joseph H. Choate, former ambassador to 
Great Britain, drank his memorable toast at a banquet of the Pilgrim 
Society: "I now ask you to all rise and drink a good old loyal toast 
to the President and the King." 

The prevalence of such sentiments gives us something to ponder. 
The war has been conducive to the propagation of seditious thought; 
we were kept too busy hunting down pro-Germans and imaginary spies 
to take heed of the intrigue being prosecuted under the Secret Will 
of Cecil Rhodes. That great constructive statesman was too practical 
to pursue an ignis fatuus; Mr. Carnegie was too much like him in that 
respect to create an enormous fund nominally for the preservation 
of peace, the interest on which, something like $500,000 annually, is 
available to propagate the cause of Pan-Anglicism, while in the mean- 
time the Rhodes scholarships are filling American homes with the 
apostles of his creed. Their tracks are easily found, and they will 

202 



become more frequent with the progress of time. Philipp Jourdan 
(John Lane Company, New York, 1911) speaks of 100 scholarships for 
the United States "to arouse love for England," and "to encourage in 
the students from the United States an attachment for the country 
from which they sprung." (pp. 75 and 328). 

What is good for Englishmen may seem good to Italians, French, 
Germans and Russians. In 191 1 many laughed at the thought that 
Uncle Sam could be drawn into the European war and send several 
million American boys over to fight in order to make the world safe 
for dem.ocracy, but Colonial Secretary Chamberlain, had he lived his 
normal span of years, would have seen the "Stars and Stripes and the 
Union Jack" waving over something very near akin to his cherished 
Anglo-Saxon alliance. (See "Propaganda.") 

Canada is being used to a great extent as a means of carrying out 
insidious projects against the United States. For a number of years 
special inducements have been offered Americans to settle in Canada, 
and large areas of farm land are in the hands of American immigrants. 
During the war many of these were compelled, in order to hold their 
property, to forswear their American citizenship, and many more 
served in the Canadian army as part of the British colonial forces. 
They were treated as colonials subject to British jurisdiction. 

A project of more far-reaching extent is embodied in the movement 
to divert western traffic from New York to Montreal. The Canadian 
government has shown a tenacious purpose in this enterprise and is 
enthusiastically supported by the West and Northwest. It has prom- 
ised to make seaports of the cities of the Great Lakes, from which 
vessels can go direct to Montreal and from there find an outlet to 
the Atlantic without reloading their cargoes. The object is to be 
accomplished by improving the Welland Canal and the cutting of a 
30-foot channel in the St. Lawrence River. The Welland Canal con- 
nects Lake Erie with Lake Ontario, and its locks are to be increased 
800 feet in length, 80 feet in breadth and 30 in depth. Those of our 
own barge canal are only 30 feet deep. The western chambers of 
commerce are enthusiastically in favor of the Canadian project, in 
view of the commercial advantage to be gained from this enterprise 
for a large area of western territory. It is probable that it will go 
into effect, and Americans will build up Canada at the expense of 
their own country. 

Ringling, AL — One of the most successful of American circus man- 
agers, who died at his home in Baraboo, Wis., in the early part of 
1916, was the son of German immigrants, who started as a musician, 
became a juggler and in 1888 organized the famous circus known by 
the name of himself and four brothers, "The Ringling Brothers' 
Circus." His circus far eclipsed any ever organized by P. T. Barnum 

203 



and his illness dated from superhuman efforts made by him to save 
his property from destruction by fire. Before his death at the age 
of 63 he presented his native town, Baraboo, with a theatre. 

Rittenhouse, David. — The first noted American scientist, born of a 
poor Pennsylvania German, son of a farmer, at Germantown, 
April 8, 1732. Owing to a feeble constitution was apprenticed to a 
clock and mechanical instrument-maker, where he followed the bent of 
his mechanical and mathematical genius, though too poor to keep 
informed concerning the progress of science in Europe. While New- 
ton and Leibnitz were warmly disputing the honor of first discoverer 
of Fluxion, writes Lossing, Rittenhouse, entirely ignorant of what 
they had done, became the inventor of that remarkable feature of alge- 
braical analysis. Applying the knowledge which he derived from 
study and reflection to the mechanic arts, he produced a planetarium, 
or an exhibition of the movements of the solar system by machinery. 
That work of art is in possession of the College of New Jersey at 
Princeton. It gave him a great reputation, and in 1770 he went to 
Philadelphia, where he met members of the Philosophical Society to 
whom he had two years before communicated that he had calculated 
with great exactitude the transit of Venus which occurred June 3, 
1769. Rittenhouse was one of those whom the society appointed to 
observe it. Only three times before, in the whole range of human 
observation, had mortal vision beheld the orb of Venus pass across 
the disc of the sun. Upon the exactitude of the performance accord- 
ing to calculations depended many astronomical problems, and the 
hour was looked forward to by philosophers with intense interest. As 
the moment approached., according to his calculations, Rittenhouse 
became greatly excited. When the discs of the planets touched at 
the expected moment the philosopher fainted. His highest hopes were 
realized and on November 9th following he was blessed with a sight of 
the transit of Mercury. When Benjamin Franklin died Rittenhouse 
was appointed president of the American Philosophical Society to fill 
his place. His fame now was world wide and many official honors 
awaited his acceptance. He held the office of treasurer of Pennsyl- 
vania for many years, and in 1792 he was appointed director of the 
Mint. Died 1797, aged 64, 

Of the origin of the first great American scientist we get an in- 
teresting amount of data from the pages of Pennypacker's "The 
Settlement of Germantown, Pa., and the Beginning of German Emi- 
gration to North America." According to this authority, his ancestor, 
William Rittenhouse (Ruttinghausen), was born in the year 1664, in 
the principality of Broich, near the city of Muhlheim on the Ruhr, 
where his brother Heinrich Nicholaus, and his mother, Maria Hager- 
hoffs, were living in 1678. At this time he was a resident of Amster- 

204 



dam. We are told that his ancestors had long been manufacturers of 
paper at Arnheim. However this may be, it is certain that this was 
the business to which he was trained, because when he took the oath 
of citizenship in Amsterdam, June 23, 1678, he was described as a 
paper maker from Muhlheim. 

He emigrated to New York, but since there was no printing in that 
city, and no opportunity, therefore, for carrying on his business of 
making paper, in 1688, together with his sons, Gerhard and Klaus, and 
his daughter Elizabeth, who subsequently married Heivert Papen, he 
came to Germantown. There, in 1690, upon a little stream flowing 
into the Wissahickon, he erected the first paper mill in America, an 
event which must ever preserve his memory in the recollection of men. 
"He was the founder of a family which in the person of David Ritten- 
house, the astronomer, philosopher and statesman, reached the very 
highest intellectual rank." 

"Here dwelt a printer, and I find 
That he can both print books and bind; 
He wants not paper, ink nor skill; 
He's owner of a paper mill." 

—John Holme, 1696. 

Roebling, John August. — One of the greatest engineers and Amer- 
ca's leading bridge builder. Among his famous achievements are 
the Pennsylvania Canal Aqueduct, across the Alleghany River (1842), 
Niagara Suspension Bridge (1852), the Cincinnati-Covington bridge, 
with a span of 1,200 feet, and the famous Brooklyn Bridge across the 
East River, completed by his son, Washington, upon the death of its 
designer. Roebling was born June 12, 1806, at Muehlhausen, Thurin- 
gia, and learned engineering at Erfurt and Berlin. 

Rassieur, Leo. — The only German ever elected Commander of the 
G. A. R. Served as major throughout the Civil War. 

Roosevelt, Col. Theodore.— Ex-President Roosevelt's early position 
on the war has never been cleared up satisfactorily. For more than 
two months after the outbreak of the war, August, 1914, he held that 
we were not called upon to interfere on account of the invasion of 
Belgium. During this time he was not only accounted neutral, but 
rather friendly to the German side, as was generally understood. He 
had been cordially received by the Kaiser, whom he allotted the chief 
credit for his success in bringing about peace between Russia and 
Japan, and during his term of President one of his most intimate 
friends was Baron Speck von Sternburg, the German ambassador. 

205 



He was publicly charged by Mr. Andre Tardieu, the French editor, 
with trying to influence the Algeciras convention of the powers to 
favor Germany's claims in Morocco, although, as M. Tardieu intimated 
in an article, he must have known of the secret understanding be- 
tween this government and Great Britain. At all events, in the fall 
of 1914, Col. Roosevelt wrote in the Outlook Magazine that we had no 
concern with the invasion of Belgium, In September, 1914, the great 
war then being in its second month, Col. Roosevelt wrote: 

It is certainly desirable that we should remain entirely neutral, 
and nothing but urgent need would warrant breaking our neu- 
tralit}'- and taking sides one way or other. 

Still later Col. Roosevelt wrote: 

I am not passing judgment on Germany's action. ... I ad- 
mire and respect the German people. I am proud of the Ger- 
man blood in my veins. When a nation feels that the issue of 
a contest in which, 'from whatever reason, it finds itself engaged 
will be national life or death, it is inevitable that it should act 
so as to save itself from death and to perpetuate its life. . . . 
What has been done in Belgium has been done in accordance 
with what the Germans unquestionably sincerely believed to be 
the course of conduct necessitated by Germany's struggle for 
life. 

Col. Roosevelt's neutrality was a subject of newspaper comment, 
as indicated by an article in the New York "Times" of September 14, 
1914, headed: "Roosevelt Neutral — Confers with Oscar Straus Again, 
Presumably about Mediation — Is the Kaiser's Friend." The lines 
gave the import of a dispatch from Oyster Bay, Roosevelt's place of 
residence, and related that "Mr. Straus's talks with Roosevelt, coupled 
with the diplomatic activity of Mr. Straus in diplomatic circles in 
Washington and New York, have given rise to rumors that Roose- 
velt's aid is being sought by those who are endeavoring to pave the 
way for a settlement of the war." 

The true import of Mr. Straus's mission to Oyster Bay in September, 
1914, has not yet been made public, though it precludes the suggestion 
that it was to persuade Roosevelt to pave the way to a settlement of 
the war, since Mr. Straus soon revealed himself as one of the most 
active partisans of the Allies in America. It was within a short time 
after that visit that Roosevelt reversed himself, and from an avowed 
neutral became a pronounced militant in the cause of the allied powers, 
denouncing the invasion of Belgium as an act that compelled the 
United States legally and morally to take up arms against Germany. 
Although his contention was persistently opposed by papers like the 
New York "Sun" and "World," which showed that the article of the 
Hague convention which guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium had 

206 



never been signed by England or France, and therefore was in- 
operative as to all other signatories. 

Col. Roosevelt's view of the invasion seems to have been that of the 
British government at the beginning. The official English White 
Book, (edited September 28, 1914), Article 6 of the Preface, is con- 
tained in "The Diplomatic History of the War," by M. P. Price, p. vii 
("Great Britain and the European Crises") Charles Scribner's Sons. 
It says: 

Germany's position must be understood. She has fulfilled her 
treaty obligations in the past; her action now was not wanton. 
Belgium was of supreme importance in a war with France. If 
such a war occurred it would be one of life and death. Germany 
feared that if she did not occupy Belgium, France might do so. 
In the face of this suspicion there was only one thing to do. 

Col. Roosevelt's ultimate extremely indignant attitude, in which he 
identified himself with every form of violent anti-German invective 
then current, even turning against his former most loyal supporters, 
professed to be primarily based upon Germany's invasion of Belgium; 
yet had he lived a little longer he would have been apprised by sub- 
sequent revelations that England, about 1886, offered to let Germany 
invade Belgium in an attack on France. On November 7, 1914, he 
wrote a long letter to Dr. Edmund von Mach, an extract from which 
seems well placed here. He said: 

As regards all the great nations involved, I can perfectly 
understand each feeling with the utmost sincerity that its cause 
is just and its action demanded by vital consideration. . . . 
I have German, French and English blood in my veins. On the 
whole, I think that I admire Germany more than any other 
nation, and most certainly it is the nation from which I think 
the United States has most to learn. On the whole, I think 
that of all the elements that have come here during the past 
century, the Germans have on the average represented the 
highest type. I do not say this publicly, for I do not think 
it well to make comparisons which may cause ill will among 
the various strains that go to make up our population. . . . 
I should feel it a world calamity if the German Empire were 
shattered or dismembered. 

Roosevelt and Taft Praise the Kaiser as an Agent of Peace. — 
Theodore Roosevelt in 1913: "The one man outside this country 
from whom I obtained help in bringing about the Peace of Ports- 
mouth was His Majesty William II. From no other nation did I 
receive any assistance, but the Emperor personally and through his 
Ambassador in St. Petersburg, was of real aid in helping induce 



Russia to face the accomplished fact and come to an agreement with 
Japan. This was a real help to the cause of international peace, a 
contribution that outweighed any amount of mere talk about it in the 
abstract." 

William H. Taft, 1913: "The truth of history requires the verdict 
that, considering the critically important part which has been his 
among the nations, he has been, for the last quarter of a century, the 
greatest single individual force in the practical maintenance of peace 
in the world." 

"Scraps of Paper." — The frequency with which England has ac- 
cused us of the violation of solemn treaties was shown in a light 
not flattering to the accuser by the late Major John Bigelow, U. S. A., 
in his last book, "Breaches of Anglo-American Treaties" (Sturgis & 
Walton Company). 

Only a few years ago, incidentally to the public discussion of the 
Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, the United States was arraigned by the Brit- 
ish press as lacking in the sense of honor that holds a nation to its 
promise. The "Saturday Review" could not expect "to find President 
Taft acting like a gentleman." "To imagine," it said, "that American 
politicians would be bound by any feeling of honor or respect for 
treaties, if it would pay to violate them, was to delude ourselves. 
The whole course of history proves this." 

The London "Morning Post" charged the United States with various 
infractions of the Treaty and said: "That is surely a record even in 
American foreign policy; but the whole treatment of this matter 
serves to remind us that we had a long series of similar incidents 
in our relations with the United States. Americans might ask them- 
selves if it is really a good foreign policy to lower the value of their 
written word in such a way as to make negotiations with other 
powers difficult or impossible. The ultimate loss may be greater than 
the immediate gain. There might come a time when the United 
States might desire to establish a certain position by treaty, and 
might find her past conduct a serious difficulty in the way." More 
recently, and presumably with more deliberation, a British author 
(Sir Harry Johnston, "Common Sense in Foreign Policy," p. 89), 
says: "Treaties, in fact, only bind the United States as long as they 
are convenient. They are not really worth the labor they entail or 
the paper they are written on. It is well that this position should 
be realized, as it may save a great deal of fuss and disappointment 
in the future." 

The most remarkable chapter in the book deals with the Clayton- 
Bulwer Treaty. Major Bigelow shows how the British Ambassador 
spirited a spurious document into the files of the State Department. 
This spurious document has had an important bearing on the inter- 
pretation of our treaty with England affecting the Panama Canal. 

208 



Schleswig-Holstein. — The case of Schleswig-Holstein, though one 
of the most complicated problems for statesmen of the last century, 
is perfectly clear as to the vital factors involved. Some centuries ago 
the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein — which may be described as the 
original seat of the Anglo-Saxons who peopled Britain — conquered 
Denmark and was proclaimed King of Denmark. As Duke of Schles- 
wig-Holstein the duchies became attached to the crown of Denmark, 
but were never incorporated as parts of the Danish State. The rela- 
tionship was similar to that of the early Georges, who were kings of 
Hanover, a distinctly German State, but which was never considered 
belonging to Great Britain for all that. 

The two German duchies were given a charter that they were "one 
and indivisible," and this held good for centuries. Early in 1840, 
a quarrel ensued between the government of Denmark and the Ger- 
man duchies. King Frederick VII had no children; the succession 
was about to descend to the female line of the family. The duchies 
protested. Their charter provided distinctly for a male line of rulers, 
and they would maintain their rights as well as the provision guaran- 
teeing their unity. Accordingly, they rejected (January 28, 1848) the 
new constitution of the government embracing every section of the 
monarchy and stood out for their constitutional guarantees. 

Underlying these constitutional questions was the stronger racial 
impulse to be united with their kindred of Germany, where the desire 
for national unity was making itself felt in revolutionary demonstra- 
tions. The first note of discord in the German national parliament 
was occasioned by the Schleswig-Holstein question. In order to 
prevent the incorporation of the duchies in the Danish State, the com- 
munities elected a provisional government and appealed to the Ger- 
man parliament to be admitted into the German confederation; at the 
same time the provisional government appealed to the King of Prussia 
for aid. The same men who have been pronounced the most ardent 
German revolutionists of 1848 were equally ardent in their desire to 
rescue two sister States from being absorbed by a government of 
alien blood and sympathy. 

The Prussian general, Wrangel, led a force into the duchies, drove 
out the Danes and occupied Jutland. Before any further blows were 
struck, Russia, England and Sweden intervened, and Prussia with- 
drew her troops in accordance with an armistice provision signed 
August 26. All public measures proclaimed by the provisional gov- 
ernment were thereupon nullified, and a common government for the 
duchies was created, partly by Denmark and partly by the German 
Confederation, and the Schleswig troops were separated from those 
of Holstein. 

This decision was regarded in Schleswig-Holstein as a betrayal of 
its cause and was never accepted by a considerable minority of the 

209 



German parliament. In 1849 revolt in the duchies broke out afresh, 
and gained many adherents in Germany. A stadtholder was appointed 
for the duchies, and an army composed of mixed German troops was 
sent to support the revolutionists under command of Gen. Bonin. An 
attack of the Danes at Eckernfoerde was repelled, the fortifications of 
Duppel were taken by storm and Kolding was captured. But the 
Schleswig-Holstein army was beaten by the Danes in a sortie from 
Fredericia, and Prussia, again under pressure from Russia and Eng- 
land, was compelled to abandon the Schleswig-Holsteiners and sign 
the armistice of July 10, 1849, with Denmark. 

By this agreement Schleswig was abandoned to Denmark, but not 
Holstein. The Schleswig-Holstein government, however, refused to 
recognize this treaty of peace and placed a new army in the field 
under General Willisen. It was defeated at Idstedt, and in con- 
formity with the treaty of Olmutz, Holstein was occupied by Austrian 
and Prussian troops, while Schleswig was abandoned to the Danes, 
under the London protocol, which recognized Prince Christian of 
Glucksberg as the future king of the monarchy. 

This, however, did not dispose of the question. In 1863 King 
Christian signed the new constitution which incorporated Schleswig 
in the Danish State and separated it from Holstein, contrary to the 
ancient charter of the two duchies. This action also conflicted with 
the London protocol and vitiated the treaty as well for those who 
signed it (Prussia and Austria) as for those who did not, the 
two duchies and the German Confederation, in so far as the recognition 
of King Christian as duke of Schleswig-Holstein was concerned. The 
duchies thereupon declared for the Prince of Augustenburg as their 
rightful ruler, who had been unjustly put aside in the London protocol, 
and appealed to the German Confederation for help. 

In order to protect Holstein as part of the German Confederation, 
the latter sent 12,000 Saxons and Hanoverians into the duchy. The 
Danes fell back across the Eider river, and the Prince of Augusten- 
burg, proclaimed the rightful ruler, took up his residence in Kiel. 
Prussia recognized King Christian, but with the distinct reservation 
that he adhere to the London protocol and surrender his claim to 
Schleswig. Under the belief that he would receive help from other 
sources. King Christian rejected the offer, and Prussia, in conjunction 
with Austria, decided to settle the Schleswig-Holstein question in 
conformity with the wishes of its people, and German national in- 
terests. This brought on the war of 1864, in which Denmark formally 
renounced her claims to the two duchies. 

This brief summary goes to show that the popular notion that 
Schleswig-Holstein was wrested from poor little Denmark by brutal 
force against the will of the people is erroneous. McCarthy, in his 
"History of Our Own Times," says: "Put into plain words, the dispute 

210 



was between Denmark, which wanted to make the duchies Danish, and 
Germany, which wanted to make them German. The arrangement 
which bound them up with Denmark was purely diplomatic and arti- 
ficial. Any one who would look realities in the face must have seen 
that some day or other the Germans would carry their point, and that 
the principle of nationalities would have its way in that case as in so 
many others." This view was held by eminent English statesmen at 
that time. McCarthy tells us that Lord Russell "had never counten- 
anced or encouraged any of the acts which tended to the enforced 
absorption of the German population into the Danish system." 

The people of the duchies fought for their own cause. When King 
Frederick VII, in March, 1848, called the leaders of the Eider-Dane 
party — the party which desired the Eider river to constitute the di- 
viding line between Denmark and Germany, thus converting Schleswig 
into a Danish province and abandoning Holstein — to take the reins 
of government, the issue was clearly drawn, and the result was revolu- 
tion. The troops joined the people; the revolution spread over the 
provinces and the struggle for the ending of the Danish rule began. 
A representative of the threatened duchies applied to the Bundesrath 
at Frankfort and was seated. Volunteers from all parts of Germany 
flocked to the northern border. Prussia was commissioned to defend 
the German duchies, and Emerson, in his "History of the Nineteenth 
Century Year by Year," tells us that before Gen. Wrangel could arrive 
to take command, "the untrained volunteer army of Schleswig- 
Holsteiners suffered defeat at Bau, and a corps of students from the 
University of Kiel was all but annihilated." When Jutland was oc- 
cupied, the historian informs us, it was "in conjunction with the vol- 
unteers of Schleswig-Holstein." Again he says: "On July 5 the 
Danes made a sortie from Fredericia and inflicted a crushing defeat 
on the Schleswig-Holsteiners, capturing 28 guns and 1,500 prisoners." 
The loss was nearly 3,000 men in dead and wounded. 

Heine, one of the ministers of the present German government, 
speaking at Tondern, Schleswig, during the fall of 1919, said: 

Here is the cradle of the purest Germanism. From here the 
richest of German blood was transfused throughout our father- 
land. Fan-like, its streams coursed from West to East. Here 
was laid the original foundation of the German people. Here 
were born the men who have wrought great deeds in German 
history. 

Among the distinguished men born in Schleswig-Holstein may be 
noted von Weber, the great composer; Friedrich Hebbel, next to 
Goethe and Schiller, Germany's most famous dramatist; several dis- 
tinguished novelists and poets, such as Poachim Maehl, Gustav 

211 



Frensen and Emanuel Geibel, one of the most appealing of the 
German poets, who sang: 

Wir wollen keine Danen sein; 

Wir wollen Deutsche bleiben. 
(We refuse to become Danes; 

We intend to remain Germans.) 

The total Danish-speaking population of the German Empire in 
1900, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, edition of 1910, was 
only 141,061, about 10,000 more than Paterson, N. J., representing in 
part the irreconcilables along the Danish border, and it is proposed 
to let this minority decide the fate of the northermost duchy, osten- 
ibly under the plebiscite, but under a plebiscite of which the Danish 
government itself entertained the most serious apprehensions, for it 
repeatedly entered vigorous protests which were sent to Versailles. 
This plebiscite is being exercised under the guns of British warships. 

A dispatch of May 11 last, from Copenhagen, speaks of dissatis- 
faction "reflected in the newspapers which declare the population of 
the district is composed of Germans, whom Denmark does not desire, 
as their presence within the country would lead to a future racial con- 
flict." Although "entirely Germanized," as one correspondent ex- 
presses it, "the population possibly would vote to adhere to Den- 
mark to escape German taxation." 

This is the sort of self-determination that is to determine the future 
boundaries of the States adjacent to the new German republic. 

Submarine Sinkings of Enemy Merchant Ships. — Without seeking 
to pass final judgment on the question whether Germany was or was 
not justified by the rules of war and considerations of humanity in 
sinking merchant vessels by means of her submarines, it is important 
to quote briefly what those who are considered authorities on the 
subject have to say about it: 

New York "World," March 21, 1919: "High officers of the British 
Admiralty have justified the unrestricted use of the submarine by 
Germany on the ground of military necessity." 

The following characteristic communication of Admiral Fisher is 
quoted in the London "Daily Herald" of October 18, from the London 
"Times" of October 17, 1919: 

"On hearing of von Tirpitz's dismissal I perpetrated the following 
letter, which a newspaper contrived to print in one of its editions. 
I can't say why, but it didn't appear any more, nor was it copied 
by any other paper: 

Dear old Tirps, 

We are both in the same boat! What a time we've been 
colleagues, old boy! However, we did you in the eye over the 

212 



battle cruisers, and I know you've said you'll never forgive me 
for it when bang went the Blucher and von Spee and all his host! 

Cheer up, old chapl Say "Resurgaml" You're the one Ger- 
man sailor who understands war! Kill your enemy without 
being killed yourself. I don't blame you for the submarine busi- 
ness. I'd have done the same myself, only our idiots in England 
wouldn't believe it when I told 'em. 

Well! So longl 

Yours till hell freezes, 
29/3/16. FISHER. 

An interview with the former German Ambassador, Count Bern- 
storff, which Hayden Talbot had in Berlin, as printed in the New York 
"American" of October 26, 1919, casts an interesting sidelight on the 
question. Count Bernstorff is quoted as follows: 

Do you know what Col. House told me one day? We had 
been discussing the submarine issue. This was early in the war. 
I had defended the German use of submarines on the ground 
that it was our only possible method against the British block- 
ade, illegal and inhuman as it was. I had pointed out that Great 
Britain had given the United States repeatedly greater cause 
for declaring war than in 1812. 

"But we can't declare war on England," Col. House said. "A 
war with England would be too unpopular in this country." 

American vessels in the War of 1812 sank and destroyed 74 
English merchant ships under instructions to the commanders of our 
squadrons "to destroy all or capture, unless in some extraordinary 
cases that shall clearly warrant an exception. . . . Unless your prize 
should be very valuable and near a friendly port it will be imprudent 
and worse than useless to attempt to send them in. ... A single 
cruiser destroying every captured vessel has the capacity of continuing 
in full vigor her destructive power." This, we think, disposes of the 
question involved whether a submarine should be required to abstain 
from sinking a captured vessel of the enemy. 

Admiral Sir Perry Scott in the London "Times" of July 16, 1914, 
justified the work of destruction of the submarines, and quoting re- 
ports on the treatment of vessels which tried to break the blockade of 
Charleston during the Civil War, said: "The blockading cruisers 
seldom scrupled to fire on the ships which they were chasing or to 
drive them aground and then overwhelm them with shell and shot 
after they were ashore." 

Schurz, Carl. — The most distinguished German American, author, 
diplomat. Union general. United States Senator, Cabinet officer and 
founder of the Civil Service system. Born March 2, 1829, at Liblar, 
near Cologne. Educated at Bonn. Participated in the Baden revolu- 
tion, and after the romantic rescue of Prof. Gottfried Kinkel from 

213 



Spandau, he and his old instructor escaped to London, and in 1853 
came to Philadelphia with his wife. Later moved to Watertown, Wis- 
consin, completed his law studies at the State University at Madison, 
and was admitted to practice. 

His eloquent speeches in the campaign of 1857 made him the leader 
of the German Americans. At twenty-eight he became a candidate 
for vice-governor and came within 107 votes of election. In 1858 he 
delivered his famous speech in English, "The Irrepressible Conflict," 
and stumped Illinois to send Lincoln to the Senate against Douglas. 
In the Republican Convention of 1860 at Chicago he led the Wisconsin 
delegation in nominating Lincoln for President and stumped the coun- 
try for his election. 

Schurz was sent to Madrid as American Minister, but resigned and 
entered the Union army, rising to rank of major general. After the 
war he was elected to the United States Senate (1869) from Missouri. 
After a temporary estrangement from the Republican Party he sup- 
ported General Hayes for President in the campaign of 1876, and was 
appointed Secretary of the Interior; in this office he introduced many 
reforms which have been adopted. Later he became editor of the 
New York "Evening Post," and associate editor of "Harper's Weekly," 
then the leading periodical in America. His "Life of Henry Clay" is 
one of the standard books of American biographies. After the Spanish 
American War he was bitterly assailed for his uncompromising hostili- 
ty to the policy of expansion, the acquisition of colonies, etc. He 
died May 14, 1906, in New York City, rated one of the greatest 
political thinkers and statesmen. 

A strong misconception has been created with regard to Schurz 
and the German revolutionists who came to the United States in 1848 
as to the cause of their grievance. It is generally represented that 
they were fighting to establish a German republic, whereas the truth 
is, they were primarily fighting for German unity. The facts are con- 
tained in "The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz," Vol. I, Chap. XIV, p. 
405: 

The German revolutionists of 1848 . . . fought for German 
unity and free government, and were defeated mainly by Prus- 
sian bayonets. Then came years of stupid political reaction and 
national humiliation, in which all that the men of 1848 had stood 
for seemed utterly lost. Then a change. Frederick William 
IV, who more than any man of his time had cherished a mystic 
belief in the special divine inspiration of kings — Frederick Wil- 
liam IV fell insane and had to drop the reins of government. 
The Prince of Prussia, whom the revolutionists of 1848 had re- 
garded as the bitterest and most uncompromising enemy of 
their cause, followed him, first as regent, then as king — destined 
to become the first Emperer of the new German empire. He 
called Bismarck to his side as prime minister — Bismarck who 
originally had been the sternest spokesman of absolutism and 

214 



the most ardent foe of the revolution. And then German unity 
with a national parliament was won, not through a revolutionary- 
uprising, but through monarchical action and foreign wars. 

Thus, if not all, yet a great and important part of the objects 
struggled for by the German revolutionists of 1848, was ac- 
complished — much later, indeed, and less peaceably, and less com- 
pletely than they had wished, and through the instrumentality 
of persons and forces originally hostile to them, but producing 
new conditions which promise to develop for the united Germany 
political forms and institutions of government much nearer the 
ideals of 1848 than those now (1852) existing. And many 
thoughtful men now frequently ask the question — and a very 
pertinent question it is — whether all these things would have 
been possible had not the great national awakening of the year 
1848 prepared the way for them. But in the summer of 1852 the 
future lay before us in a gloomy cloud. Louis Napoleon seemed 
firmly seated on the neck of his submissive people. The British 
government under Lord Palmertson shook hands with him. 
All over the European continent the reaction from the liberal 
movements of the last four years celebrated triumphant orgies. 
How long it would prove irresistible nobody could tell. That 
some of its very champions would themselves become the lead- 
ers of the national spirit in Germany even the most sanguine 
would in 1851 not have ventured to anticipate. 

We think this extract speaks for itself and needs no comment. The 
chief aim of the revolutionists was to see Germany unified, and 
Schurz is not remiss in expressing his esteem for the "leaders of the 
national spirit in Germany" who had once been the champions of 
reaction. 

Scheffauer, Herman George. — One of the foremost American poets, 
translators, and dramatists, born in San Francisco 1878, traveled 
in Europe and Africa and spent two years in London. Author of 
"Of Both Worlds" (poems); "Looms of Life" (poems); "Sons of 
Baldur," forest play; "Masque of the Elements," "Drake in Califor- 
nia," "The New Shylock," a play. Translator of Heine's "Atta 
Troll" and "The Woman Problem," both from the German. 

Schell, Johann Christian and His Wife. — One of the most inspiring 
stories of the Revolutionary war centers around this brave Palatine 
couple and their six sons, who tefianted a lonely cabin three miles 
northeast of the town of Herkimer, N. Y., and who in August, 1781, 
while at work in the fields were attacked by 16 Tories and 48 Indians. 
The marauders captured two of the younger boys, the remainder 
of the family gaining the shelter of the cabin. Here they success- 
fully defended their home all day. With dusk the chief of the raid- 
ers, Capt. McDonald, succeeded in evading the vigilance of the 
defenders and to reach the door, which he tried to pry open with 
a lever. A shot struck him in the leg, and before he could effect 

215 



his escape Schell opened the door and dragged the wounded man 
inside, where he held him as a hostage against the attempt to fire 
the house. The defenders now awaited the next move of the enemy 
and burst into singing Luther's famous battle hymn of the Reforma- 
tion, "Eine Feste Burg ist unser Gott." In the midst of the song 
the attacking party rushed toward the house, gained the walls so 
that they were able to thrust their guns through the loopholes to 
fire at those within. Quick as thought Mrs. Schell seized an axe 
and beat upon the gun barels until they were useless, while the men 
directed their fire so well that the miscreants were driven to flight, 
leaving eleven dead and twelve seriously wounded on the field. 

Schley, Winfield Scott. — American admiral who conquered Cervera's 
Spanish Squadron in Santiago Bay during the Spanish-American war, 
was descended from Thomas Schley, who immigrated into Maryland 
in 1735 at the head of 100 German Palatines and German Swiss fam- 
ilies. Founded Friedrichstadt, afterwards Frederickstown, Md. 
Thomas Schley was a schoolmaster, and Pastor Schlatter of St. Gall, 
in the story of his travels (1746-51), wrote: "It is a great advantage 
of this congregation that it has the best schoolmaster whom I have 
met in America." Admiral Schley graduated from the Naval Acad- 
emy and participated immediately upon his leaving the Academy in 
numerous naval engagements during the Civil War. He was then 
attached to various squadrons and distinguished himself during the 
Corean Revolution in the bombardment of the forts. 

When the Greeley North Pole expedition was practically given up 
for lost Captain Schley one day modestly presented himself to Secre- 
tary of the Navy Chandler and said: "Mr. Secretary, I realize that 
by rank I am not entitled to the honor of commanding a relief expe- 
dition, but, seeing that no volunteers have offered themselves for such 
command, I want to offer my services in order that it may not be 
said that the navy was found wanting." Schley's manner made a 
strong impression on the Secretary, and in a short time he received 
orders to head an expedition. The relief of Lieutenant Greeley by 
Schley when the exploring expedition was practically down to a few 
starving survivors forms one of the heroic chapters in the history of 
the American navy. Schley's rapid rise and success at Santiago, 
together with his popularity with ttie rank and file of the navy, raised 
a cabal against him among the bureaucrats, and he was brought to 
trial for his manouvering of the Brooklyn in the Santiago battle. 
Cervera, the Spanish commander, when taken prisoner, attributed the 
failure of the Spanish squadron to escape to the famous "loop" of 
the Brooklyn, but a court martial found a contrary verdict. Admiral 
Dewey dissented. The verdict had no perceptible effect on Schley's 
popularity, and the American people give him unqualified credit for 
the battle. 

216 



Steinmetz, Charles P. — One of the greatest scholars and scientists 
in the electrical field of today, Chief Consulting Engineer of the 
General Electric Company, and professor of electro-physics at Union 
College; Socialist president of the City Council and president Board 
of Education of Schenectady. Intimate associate and collaborator 
of Thomas A. Edison, and to whose genius many of the most im- 
portant developments in electrical science are due. A native of 
Breslau, Germany; born April 9, 1865. 

The New York "Times" of March 12, 1916, says: "Everybody 
knows that applied industrial chemistry would be a comparatively 
barren thing if everything that had come to it as the result of this 
man's research should be taken away." Fled Germany to escape 
prosecution for his Socialist writings. Came over in the steerage 
and worked as a draughtsman at $2 a day. In the "Times" he was 
quoted as having buried all resentment for his experience of thirty 
years ago. "Germany," he said, "is so different now. I would not 
know the country if I went back to it. When I left it was merely 
an agricultural country. Now it is the greatest industrial country 
in the world." 

Sauer, Christopher. — The first to print a book (the Bible) in a 
foreign tongue (German) on American soil; famous printer and pub- 
lisher of German and American books. Born in Germany,' arrived 
in the Colonies in the fall of 1724, settling in Germantown. Pub- 
lished the first newspaper in the German language, "Der Hoch- 
deutsche Pennsylvanische Geschichts Schreiber, . oder Sammlung 
Wichitiger Nachrichten aus dem Natur und Kirchen Reich." His 
magnificent quarto edition of the Bible, issued in 1743, after three 
years of endless toil, has never, in completeness and execution, been 
excelled in this country. He died in September, 1758, leaving an 
only son, also named Christopher, who continued his father's busi- 
ness but gave it additional importance by employing two or three 
mills in manufacturing paper, casting his own type, making his own 
printers' ink and engraving his own woodcuts as well as binding his 
own books, many of which passed through five or six editions. 
(Simpson's "Lives of Eminent Philadelphians.") 

Starving Germany — (Lord Courtney in Manchester "Guardian") — 
"The attempt of England to starve Germany is a violation of the 
Declaration of London and a brutal offense against humanity. For 
these two reasons — if not for many others — it is a dishonorable pro- 
ceeding." (Dispatch of March 21, 1915.) 

The silent policy of starving people into subjection is eloquently 
shown in the history of Ireland, of India, of the South African re- 
publics and of the Central Powers, and, strangely, the one country 
that has achieved this distinction is England. 

217 



We said that the blockade of Germany was "illegal, ineffective and 
indefensible," but Sir Robert Cecil about the same time declared 
that England and the United States had an understanding, and he 
boasted that "we have our hands at the throat of Germany" and 
scorned the suggestion to relax a grip that meant the starvation of 
women, children and the aged. Germany was told to give up her 
U-boat sinking of merchant ships and answered that she had no other 
weapon to make England take her grip off the German throat, and 
when she was forced to surrender, the full magnitude of the policy 
of starving non-combatants was revealed. The picture is presented 
in the uncolored official statements of unprejudiced observers. The 
Stockholm "Tidningen" of March 29, 1919: 

The Swedish Red Cross delegates sent to Germany in order 
to make arrangements for getting over to Sweden underfed 
German children have now returned to Stockholm. The first 
transport will contain 500 Berlin children. 

The delegates describe the want in Germany as appalling. 
During the revolution days nothing at all could be got for the 
babies in some places except hot water, and many died, but this 
was nothing unusual in Berlin. The children were underfed, 
feeble and rachitic everywhere. Ofter children four or live years 
old were unable to walk. In many places the schools had had to 
be closed because of the general want. Tuberculosis has in- 
creased by 60 per cent. Because of this older children than 
at first proposed must be sent to Sweden. . . . There are 
also negotiations going on regarding children from the other 
famishing countries. The German Government has promised to 
transport the Belgian children free of charge from Belgium to 
Sassnitz. 

The interest in Sweden for the war children is immense. 
One thousand five hundred invitations have already been made 
from single peasants' homes, and about £3,000 has been col- 
lected, mostly in small contributions from the poorer classes. 
Thus willingness to sacrifice is great, but, of course, much more 
money is still needed. 

Henry Nevison, an eminent journalist, recently presented in the 
London "Daily News" a tragic description of what he saw in the 
hospitals of Cologne: "Although I have seen many horrible things," 
he writes, "I have seen nothing so pitiful as these rows of babies, 
feverish from want of food, exhausted by privations to the point that 
their little limbs were slender wands, their expressions hopeless and 
their eyes full of pain." — "The Nation." 

Prof. Johansson, of the Neutral Commission, who visited Ger- 
many in January, reports: "About 1,600,000 people were killed 
in the war, but almost half this number, or rather 700,000, fell 
victims to the food shortage produced by the blockade. The 
population has decreased in an unprecedented degree by reason 

218 



of the declining birth-rate. At the present moment Germany- 
has 4,000,000 fewer children than in normal pre-war times. — 
"Dagens Nyheter," Stockholm, Lib., March 30, 1919. 

Dr. Rubner writes in the "German Medical Weekly" on the 
effects of the blockade. He gives the figures of deaths of army 
and civil population since 1914 as: 

Army, all causes, 1,621,000. 

Civil population, through blockade, 763,000, of which 260,000 
is for 1917 and 294,000 to the end of 1918. He comes to the 
conclusion that even now any improvement in the condition, 
as regards nourishment of the German people, will be possible 
only in a very partial degree; above all, capacity for work 
. will not increase to the needed extent. — "Vorwaerts," April 11, 
1919. 

In a report made by five doctors of neutral lands, Swedish, 
Norwegian and Dutch, dated April 11, 1919, after they had col- 
lected information in Berlin, Halle and Dresden, they say: "The 
food concessions under the Brussels agreement are altogether 
inadequate. The most they do is to maintain the present neces- 
sitous food conditions. . . . Immediate help is necessary. 
Every day of delay risks immeasurable injury not only to the 
whole of Europe, but to the whole world." 

Evidence of the same import is furnished by Jane Adams and 
charitable English persons, and the liberal periodicals, as distinct 
from the daily newspapers, have printed columns showing the terri- 
ble ravages of an illegel and indefensible blockade which inflicted 
the horrors of war upon the feeble and helpless, those recognized by 
the laws of nations and humanity as entitled to protection when not 
within the sphere of military operations and in no way responsible for 
or contributing to them. 

The armistice was signed November 11, 1918, but so relentless was 
the English policy of crushing the German people that Winston 
Churchill, on March 3, 1919, declared in the House of Commons: 
"We are enforcing the blockade with rigor. . . . This weapon of 
starvation falls mainly upon the women and children, upon the old, 
the weak, and the poor, after all the fighting has stopped." ("The 
Nation," June 21, 1919; p. 980.) 

The appalling heartlessness which, not content with inflicting 
starvation on a whole nation — for we will not mention Austria in 
this connection — designed to add to its horrors still added injuries, 
is exposed in the terms of the treaty, by which the German people 
were required to give up 140,000 milch cows and other livestock. 
Witness the following Associated Press dispatch: 

Paris, July 24 (Associated Press). — Germany will have to sur- 
render to France 500 stallions, 3,000 fillies, 90,000 milch cows, 
100,000 sheep and 10,000 goats, according to a report made yes- 
terday before the French Peace Commission, sitting under the 

219 



presidency of Rene Viviani, by M. Dubois, economic expert 
for the commission, in commenting on the peace treaty clauses. 
Two hundred stallions, 5,000 mares, 5,000 fillies, 50,000 cows, 
and 40,0i00 heifers, also are to go to Belgium from Germany. 
The deliveries are to be made monthly during a period of three 
months until completed. 

A total of 140,000 milch cows! Forty thousand heifers! To be 
surrendered by a country in which little children were dying for 
lack of milk, and babies were brought into the world blind because 
of the starved conditions of the mothers 1 

Steuben, Baron Frederick William von. — Major General in the 
Revolutionary army. Descended from an old noble and military 
family of Prussia. Entered the service of Frederick the Great as a 
youth, and fought with distinction in the bloodiest engagements of 
the Seven Years War, being latterly attached to the personal staff 
of the great King. After the war, was persuaded by friends of the 
American Colonies and admirers of his ability in France to offer his 
services to Congress, and on September 26, 1777, set sail aboard the 
twenty-four gun ship "I'Heureaux" at Marseilles, arriving at Ports- 
mouth, N. H., December 1, 1777. 

Found the American army full of spirit and patriotism, but badly 
disciplined, and was appointed Inspector General. Wrote the first 
book of military instruction in America, which was approved by 
General Washington, authorized by Congress and used in the drilling 
of the troops. Distinguished himself especially in perfecting the 
light infantry, his method being subsequently copied by several Euro- 
pean armies and by Lord Cornwallis himself during the Revolution. 

With General DeKalb and other foreign-born officers he encoun- 
tered much opposition and annoyance from native officers on account 
of jealousy and prejudice, and though supported by General Wash- 
ington, Hamilton and other influential men, had difficulty in obtaining 
from Congress what he was legally entitled to claim, not as a 
reward for his conspicuous services, but to enable him to support 
life. When threatening to take his discharge, Washington sought 
to dissuade him on the ground that his service was well-nigh indis- 
pensable to the cause of the colonists, and in justifying a memoran- 
dum of sums advanced to Steuben in excess of the $2,000 per annum 
promised him, the commander-in-chief wrote to Congress: 

"It is reasonable that a man devoting his time and service to the 
public — and by general consent a very useful one — should at least 
have his expenses borne. His established pay is certainly altogether 
inadequate to this," showing that Steuben was not actuated by mer- 
cenary motives in serving the Colonists. 

220 



"Your intention of quitting us," wrote Col. Benjamin Walker, 
March 10, 1780, to Steuben, "cannot but give me much concern, both 
as an individual and as a member of the Commonwealth, convinced 
as I am of the necessity of your presence to the existence of order 
and discipline in the army. I cannot but dread the moment when 
such event shall take place, for much am I afraid we should again fall 
into that state of absolute negligence and disorder from which you 
have in some manner drawn us." 

It was Steuben who taught the Americans the value of bayonet 
fighting. The engagement at Stony Point proved the value of the 
bayonet as an arm. Previous to this time Steuben preached in vain 
on the usefulness of this weapon. The soldiers had no faith in it. 
But when Stony Point Fort was captured without firing a shot and 
when, the next day, Steuben with General Washington appeared on 
the scene, "Steuben was surrounded by all his young soldiers and 
they assured him unanimously that they would take care for the 
future not to lose their bayonets, nor roast beefsteaks with them, 
as they used to do." 

By his personal kindness and popularity Steuben was able to bring 
about marked reforms, and to convert the forces from untrained 
volunteers with no sense of order into a well-disciplined army which 
enabled Washington to win some of his chief battles. Speaking on 
a resolution before Congress to pay Steuben the sum of $2,700 due 
him, a member, Mr. Page, cited as proof of the efficiency which had 
been inculcated into the army by the distinguished German-American, 
an interesting incident in the following words: 

"I was told that when the Marquis de Lafayette, with a detach- 
ment under his command, was in danger of being cut ofif on his 
return to the army, and the commander-in-chief was determined to 
support that valuable officer, the whole army was under arms and 
ready to march in less than fifteen minutes from the time the signal 
was given." In the end Steuben was presented by Congress with 
a gold-hilted sword as a high expression of its sense of his military 
talents, services and character, and a large tract of land in New York 
State was given him on which to live in his old age. 

At the battle of Yorktown Steuben was so fortunate as to receive 
the first overtures of Lord Cornwallis. "At the relieving hour next 
morning," relates North, "the Marquis de Lafayette approached 
with his division; the baron refused to be relieved, assigning as a 
reason the etiquette in Europe; that the offer to capitulate had 
been made during his guard, and that it was a point of honor, of 
which he would not deprive his troops, to remain in the trenches 
till the capitulation was signed, or hostilities recommenced. The 
dispute was referred by Lafayette to the commander-in-chief; but 
Steuben remained until the British flag was struck." 

221 



^"^r^H.. 




GENERAL VON STEUBEN 
Drillmaster of the American Revolutionary Armies. 



Steuben died in the night of November 25, 1794, on his farm, 
highly respected throughout the State and reverenced by the dis- 
tinguished men of his time as well as by the German population, 
having served as president of the German Society of New York. 
When in 1824 Lafayette visited the United States the inhabitants 
of Oneida County collected money for erecting a monument over 
Steuben's grave. They invited Lafayette to dedicate the monument, 
but he refused to accede to their request, excusing himself under 
some shallow pretext. ("Life of Steuben," by Friedrich Kapp.) 

That Steuben had no mercenary motives in coming to America, is 
proved by his letter to Congress. He wrote: 

"The honor of serving a nation engaged in defending its rights 
and liberties was the only motive that brought me to this continent. 
I asked neither riches nor titles. I came here from the remotest end 
of Germany at my own expense and have given up honorable and 
lucrative rank. I have made no condition with your deputies in 
France, nor shall I make any with you. My own ambition is to serve 
you as a volunteer, to deserve the confidence of your general-in- 
chief, and to follow him in all his operations, as I have done during 
the seven campaigns with the King of Prussia. ... I should willingly 
purchase at the expense of my blood the honor of having my name 
enrolled among those of the defenders of your liberty." 

Washington's appreciation of Steuben is finally and irrevocably 
attested in the following letter dated Annapolis, December 23, 1783: 

"My dear Baron! Although I have taken frequent opportunities, 
both in public and private, of acknowledging your zeal, attention 
and abilities in performing the duties of your ofifice, yet I wish to 
make use of this last moment of my public life to signify in the 
strongest terms my entire approbation of your conduct, and to express 
my sense of the obligations the public is under to you for your 
faithful and meritorious service. 

"I beg you will be convinced, my dear Sir, that I should rejoice 
if it could ever be in my power to serve you more essentially than 
by expressions of regard and afifection. But in the meantime I am 
persuaded you will not be displeased with this farewell token of my 
sincere friendship and esteem for you. 

"This is the last letter I shall ever write while I continue in the 
service of my country. The hour of my resignation is fixed at twelve 
this day, after which I shall become a private citizen on the banks 
of the Potomac, where I shall be glad to embrace you, and testify 
th'^ great esteem and consideration, with which I am, my dear Baron, 
yc ur most obedient and affectionate servant. 

"GEORGE WASHINGTON." 

A superb monument of General von Steuben by Albert Jaegers 

223 



now occupies one of the corners of the square opposite the White 
House in Washington. 

Along with the splendid tribute to the American spirit of patriotism 
and unselfish devotion of Steuben, it seems fit and timely to add here 
the "creed" which was adopted by the officers of the American army 
at Verplanck's Point, in 1782: 

We believe that there is a great First Cause, by whose almighty 
fiat we were formed; and that our business here is to obey the 
orders of our superiors. We believe that every soldier who 
does his duty will be happy here, and that every such one who 
dies in battle, will be happy hereafter. We believe that General 
Washington is the only fit man in the world to head the Amer- 
ican army. We believe that Nathaniel Green was born a general. 
We believe that the evacuation of Ticonderoga was one of those 
strokes which stamp the man who dares to strike them, with 
everlasting fame. We believe that Baron Steuben has made us 
soldiers, and that he is capable of forming the whole world 
into a solid column, and displaying it from the center. We be- 
lieve in his blue book. We believe in General Knox and his 
artillery. And we believe in our bayonets. Amen. 

The gratitude of the American people, many years after Steuben's 
death, was solemnly attested by Congress in dedicating a monument 
to his memory at Pottsdam, with the inscription: 

To the German Emperor and the German People: 
This replica of the monument to the Memory of 
General Friedrich Wilhelm August von Steuben. 

Born in Magdeburg, 1730; died in the State of New York, 1794. 

Is dedicated by the Congress of the United States as a Token 

of Uninterrupted Friendship. 

Erected in Washington in Grateful Appreciation of his Services 
in the War of Independence of the American People. 

Sulphur King, Herman Frasch. — Inventor of the method of pumping 
up sulphur from its deposits, known as the water process, patented 
in 1891, which made available the large sulphur deposits in southern 
Louisiana and other places, which had puzzled engineers for years. 
Frasch came originally from Germany in the steerage, obtained work 
sweeping out a retail drug store, became a clerk and finally was 
graduated from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. He joined the 
Standard Oil Company, and in prospecting for oil came upon 
abandoned sulphur workings. The deposits were covered with quick- 
sands which had caused the death of several men, they exhaled 
noxious gases and the attempts to mine them were called a failure. 
Frasch bought them for a song on his own account, and began sinking 
his own perforated pipes through which he forced steam and hot 
water from a battery of boilers which he had rigged up. Frasch 
became a millionaire and revolutionized sulphur mining in Sicily. 

224 



Sutter, the Romance of the California Pioneer. — The romance of 
American colonization contains no chapter more absorbing than 
that of the winning of the West. A poetic veil has been cast about the 
California gold excitement and the rugged pioneers of the gulch, by 
Bret Harte, Joaquin Miller and Mark Twain; but few historians have 
thought it worth their pain to uncover the romance of the original 
pioneer of California on whose land was found the first gold that 
formed the lodestone of attraction for the millions that swept west- 
ward on the tide of empire. 

Against the historic background of the settlement of the Pacific 
Coast stands out in luminous outlines the figure of Capt. John August 
Sutter. Where another German, John Jacob Astor, had failed — that 
of founding an American colony on the Pacific — he succeeded, even 
before California, taken from Mexico as a result of the war of 1846, 
became a State of the Union in 1850. His career is an inspiration to 
his fellow racials wherever German veins tingle to the thrill of 
American achievement. 

Born 1803 at Kandern, in the Grand Duchy of Baden, Sutter received 
an excellent education, graduated from the cadet school at Thun and, 
after serving as an officer in the Swiss army and acquiring Swiss 
citizenship, he came to the United States in 1834. He first wandered 
to St. Louis, then the outfitting point for the Santa Fe trail and 
center of the fur trade. Here Sutter joined an expedition to Santa 
Fe and returned to St. Louis with a substantial profit. His next trip 
was undertaken with an American fur expedition and, crossing the 
Rocky Mountains, he reached Vancouver, the headquarters of the 
Hudson Bay Fur Company on the Pacific, in September, 1838. After 
a visit to the Sandwich Islands and to Sitka, Alaska, he arrived in 
Monterey, California, in 1839, and determined to put into execution 
a long-cherished plan of founding a colony on the Sacramento River. 
Selecting a spot 120 miles northeast of San Francisco, which had 
been highly recommended to him by trappers, he formed the settle- 
ment, New Switzerland, upon a strip of land which he had acquired 
on favorable terms from the Spanish governor, Alvarado. Here, of 
strong walls and bastions, he built Fort Sutter and armed it with 
twelve cannon. He then offered inducements to settlers to join him, 
broke several hundred acres of land, built a tannery, a mill and a dis- 
tillery, fenced in a large area of grazing land between the Sacra- 
mento and Feather rivers, employed Indians as herders and laborers 
and placed them under Mexican, American and German overseers. 
About 1840 his livestock consisted of 20,000 head of horses, cattle 
and sheep. 

Fort Sutter soon attracted a desirable class of settlers, many of 
them mechanics, who found ready employment here, as well as hunters 
and trappers, who came to exchange furs for supplies of food, of 

225 



clothes and of powder and lead. Having complied with the terms of 
his agreement, he was given title to the Alvarado grant and was 
appointed by the governor the official representative of the Mexican 
government for the northern part of California. 

In the Mexican civil war between Santa Anna and the constitu- 
tional president, Bustamento, he cast his lot with Santa Anna's gover- 
nor, Manuel Micheltorena, and in 1845 received from the latter for 
his services the Sobranta grant. There was almost a daily 'increase 
of his land and pastures. His fort became too small. In 1844 he 
laid out the town of Sutterville on the Sacramento River, which 
latterly took the name of Sacramento. In 1848 he established vine- 
yards on his property, the first north of Sonoma. His wheat crop 
is estimated at 40,000 bushels for various years, while his large com- 
mercial and industrial enterprises promised him a steady increase of 
a fortune, even then estimated at millions. His fortune seems to 
have reached its apex in 1846. 

Immigration into California was steadily increasing; the old anti- 
pathy of the Spaniards and Indians against Mexico was stimulated 
into new life; Major Fremont, the Pathfinder, visited Fort Sutter, 
and encouraged by him, Sutter in the spring of 1846 declared his 
independence and on July 11 of that year hoisted the Stars and Stripes 
over his fort. 

Once before the flag had been raised by a German on the Pacific 
Coast, at Astoria by Astor in 1811. It was not suffered to remain 
there permanently, but this time it was destined not to be hauled 
down again. The war between Mexico and the United States broke 
out. Commodore Stockton appeared with an American squadron, sol- 
diers of the Union began their invasion (see "Quitman," elsewhere), 
and California became a territory of the United States. Sutter was 
now destined to experience that life is uncertain and fortune is 
fickle. 

In January, 1848, Sutter was about to build a mill on the American 
River, a tributary of the Sacramento, and, in digging the foundation, 
J. W. Marshall, an agent of Sutter's, discovered gold. Despite the 
efforts of Sutter to keep the discovery secret for a while until his 
mill was completed and his fields were put in order, the news circulated 
with the speed of the wind. The magic word had been spoken, and 
thence on no man thought of anything but gold. The irresistible rush 
was on; a tide of humanity swept on to wash gold and dig up the 
mountain sides farther up. Wages rose beyond all reason, so that 
it was impossible to continue farming and industry, since there were 
no hands to do the work. Titles were worthless. Thousands of ad- 
venturers squatted on Sutter's land. Countless law suits had to be 
instituted, and Sutter's property was soon covered with mortgages. 

226 



In the end the supreme court confirmed his title to the Alvarado grant 
while declaring null and void that of the much larger grant from 
Micheltorena. Other misfortunes came apace and presently Sutter 
saw his great fortune swept away. The State of California granted 
him an annuity of $3,000 for seven years in lieu of taxes paid by him 
on American federal-owned property which was immune from tax. 

In the year 1865 Sutter turned his back upon California and went 
to Pennsylvania, where he died poor at Litiz. But he was not for- 
gotten. His name was given to rivers, towns and counties and the 
room of the legislative assembly was decorated with his portrait. 
He had been elected major general of the State militia and in 1849 
he was made a member of the convention to adopt a constitution. 
In this capacity he was active in securing the passage of measures 
declaring for the abolition of slavery. 

Sutter was naturally generous, hospitable and broad-minded, with 
a strong adjunct of courage, shrewdness and enterprise in great 
conceptions. A memorial speech delivered by Edward J. Kewen on 
the occasion of a banquet of the Society of California Pioneers, 
September 9, 1854, concludes with the following tribute: 

In the cycle of the coming years historians will write of the 
founding and settlement of this western State, and when they 
shall dwell upon the virtues, the hardships, the sufferings and 
courage, the fearlessness which has brought all this about; when 
they describe the mighty impulse which this commonwealth 
has exercised upon the progress of free government and the de- 
velopment of the principles of liberty, and when they shall adorn 
the annals with the name of the founders of its fame, no name 
will illuminate their records with more brilliant light than that 
of the immortal Sutter — the noble example of the California 
pioneers. 

"Swordmaker of the Confederacy." — Louis Haiman, born in Colmar, 
Prussia, who came to the United States at a tender age with his family 
and was brought to Columbus, Georgia, then a small village. At the 
outbreak of the Civil War Haiman was following the trade of a tinner. 
"His work," according to the Atlanta "Constitution," was successful, 
"and in 1861 he opened a sword factory to supply the Confederacy 
a weapon that the South at the time had poor facilities for making. 
Such was Haiman's success that in a year's time his factory covered 
a block in the town of Columbus and was the most extensive business 
in the place. The first sword made by Haiman was presented to Col. 
Peyton H. Colquitt, and was one of the handsomest in all the Southern 
army. It was inlaid with gold, and was constantly used by Colonel 
Colquitt up to the time of his death. After that Haiman made swords 
for the officers of the Confederate army, and his first order came 
from Captain Wagner, in charge of the arsenal at Montgomery, Ala. 

227 



Later on, to supply the needs of the troops in Southern Georgia and 
Alabama, he added a manufactory of firearms and accoutrements to 
his establishment. When the Federal army occupied Georgia Hai- 
man's property was confiscated and turned into a federal arsenal. 
General Wilson, commander of the army of occupation, proposed to 
restore to Haiman his property if he would take the oath of allegiance 
to the Federal authority, but Haiman's unswerving loyalty to the 
cause of the South would not for a moment allow him to brook such 
a suggestion, and with the departure of the troops his factory was 
razed to the ground. His swords came to be famous in the ranks of 
the Confederacy, and their temper and durability have often called to 
mind the supreme test of swords related in 'Ivanhoe' between the 
leaders of Christendom and heathendom, Richard Coeur de Lion 
and Saladin. After the war, with the resources left him, he entered 
business at Columbus, that of manufacturing plows." 

Tolstoy on American Liberty. — Although Nicholas Murray Butler, 
President of Columbia University, New York City, never surrendered 
the decoration bestowed upon him by the Kaiser, and though he 
had delivered sundry sound scoldings to England for her professed 
fears of German aggression, in the days before the war, his name 
stands out conspicuously among a considerable number of heads 
of colleges for the suppression of free speech and liberty of con- 
science in regard to the war. A number of the professors, several 
of international fame, were compelled to resign under the pressure 
exercised from above, and Columbia became known for its spirit 
of intolerance. Among those who felt this was Count Ilya Tolstoy, 
son of the famous Russian author and philosopher, himself a man of 
distinction in those fields. 

In February, 1917, even before we entered the war, Tolstoy's 
engagement to deliver a lecture at a meeting of the International 
Club in the assembly room of Philosophy Hall, Columbia University, 
was summarily cancelled, although he had delivered the same lecture 
without molestation at Princeton a few days before. In an interview 
the distinguished savant said: 

"The action of Columbia University was no insult to me. It was an 
insult to the vaunted institution of free speech in this country. I shall 
go back to Russia and tell them the story. I shall tell them how New 
York prevented me from giving the lecture I gave before thousands 
in Moscow. They will be astonished. My .countrymen have made 
your heralded freedom of speech a shibboleth of liberty — in our land. 
... It matters little. I am surprised, but not hurt. Only I have 
learned that Russia has much more freedom from personal prejudice, 
in many ways, than this country has." — New York "American," Feb- 
ruary 12, 1917. 

228 



Commercial Treaty with Germany and How it Was Observed. — One 
of the most humane and liberal treaties in the history of nations was 
that entered into between the United States and Prussia in 1799. It 
was renewed in 1828 and became the treaty governing the relations 
between Germany and ourselves in 1871 on the establishment of the 
German Empire. 

This treaty was in force in 1917 when we entered the war. Some 
high eulogiums have been passed upon this treaty, which was signed 
by Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and John Quincy Adams, 
and, in 1828, by Henry Clay, on the part of the United States, and by 
the authorized representative of Frederick the Great, on the other. 
In his comments on this treaty, Theodore Lyman, Jr., a writer with a 
strong Tory tendency and chary of praise as regards Prussia, makes 
the following observations in his "The Diplomacy of the United 
States" (1828): 

This treaty, which has been called a beautiful abstraction, is 
remarkable for the provisions which it contains: Blockades 
of every description were abolished — the flag covered the prop- 
erty — contrabands were exempted from confiscation, though 
they might be employed for the use of the captor on payment 
of their full value. This, we believe, is the only treaty ever 
made by America in which contrabands were not subject to 
confiscation, nor are we aware that any other modern treaty 
contains this remarkable provision. We are probably indebted 
to Dr. Franklin for the articles. 

It received an even higher endorsement in a message to Congress, 
dated March 15, 1826, by President John Quincy Adams, who said: 

They (the three American commissioners) met and resided 
for that purpose about one year in Paris and the only result of 
their negotiations at that time was the first treaty between the 
United States and Prussia — memorable in the diolomatic history 
of the world and precious as a monument of the principles, in 
relation to commerce and maritime warfare with which our coun- 
try entered upon her career as a member of the great familv of 
indeoendent nations. ... At that time in the infancy of their 
Dolitical existence, under the influence of those principles of 
liberty and of right so congenial to the cause in which they had 
just fought and triumphed, they were able to obtain the sanction 
of but one great and philosophical though absolute sovereign in 
Eurone (Frederick the Great) to their liberal and enlightened 
principles. They could obtain no more. 

The two principal provisions of the treaty of 1799-1828 follow: 
Article XII: 

And it is declared, that neither the pretense that war dissolves 
all treaties, nor any other whatever, shall be sonsidered as 
annulling or suspending this and the next preceding article; but, 
on the contrary, that the state of war is precisely that for which 

229 



they are provided, and during which they are to be as sacredly 
observed as the most acknowledged articles in the law of nature 
and nations. 

Article XXIII provides as follows: 

If war should arise between the two contracting parties, the 
merchants of either country then residing in the other shall be 
allowed tp remain nine months to collect their debts and settle 
their affairs, and may depart freely, carrying off all their effects 
without molestation or hindrance; and all women and children, 
scholars of every faculty, cultivators of the earth, artisans, 
manufacturers, and fishermen, unarmed and inhabiting unforti- 
fied towns, villages, or places, and in general all others whose 
occupations are for the common subsistence and benefit of man- 
kind, shall be allowed to continue their respective employments 
and shall not be molested in their persons, nor shall their houses 
or goods be burnt or otherwise destroyed, nor their fields wasted 
by the armed force of the enemy, into whose power by the event 
• of war they may happen to fall; but if anything is necessary to 
be taken from them for the use of such armed force, the same 
shall be -paid for at a reasonable price. 

Under the foregoing, German citizens, merchants, corporations, com- 
panies, etc., would have the right for the period of nine months after 
the declaration of war to collect their debts, settle their affairs, and, 
if possible, to depart safely, carrying all their effects with them without 
any hindrance whatsoever. This would mean, for instance, that the 
owners of the German vessels interned in our harbors would be 
privileged to have full control over their property. 

Under date of February 8, 1917, the State Department issued 
the following statement: 

It having been reported to him that there is anxiety in some 
quarters on the part of persons residing in this country who are 
the subjects of foreign states lest their bank deposits or other 
property should be seized in the evfent of war between the United 
States and a foreign nation, the President authorizes the state- 
ment that all such fears are entirely unfounded. 

The Government of the United States will under no circum- 
stances take advantage of a state of war to take possession of 
property to which under international understandings and the 
recognized law of the land give it no just claim or title. It will 
scrupulously respect all private rights, alike of its own citizens 
and the subjects of foreign states. 

This was made public two months before we found ourselves in a 
state of war with Germany. Soon after, A. Mitchell Palmer was ap- 
pointed Custodian of Alien Property and began to seize about one 
thousand million dollars' worth of German property and securities — 
not the property of the Imperial German Government, with which we 
were at war, but the property of German private persons, 

230 



Using the language of an editorial in one of the leading newspapers 
in America of August 29, 1919, a treaty between the United States and 
Germany, which had never been denounced and was in full force, 
provided that in case of war between Germany and the United States, 
Germany should permit American owners of property in Germany, or 
Americans doing business in Germany, to have nine months in which 
to wind up their business affairs, to dispose of their property and to 
take themselves unhindered out of Germany. And the United States 
bound itself, of course, to give the same treatment to German aliens 
doing business or owning property in America. This treaty agree- 
ment was deliberately broken by the Custodian of Alien Property. 
Under international law the duty of such a custodian is to take 
possession of the property of alien citizens of an enemy country, 
administer that property carefully, preserve it in good faith, and 
hold the earnings of the property and the property itself ready for 
return to the owners whenever peace shall come. "We want," de- 
clares the paper, "to keep the name and reputation of the American 
people so clean and honorable that no American shall ever need to 
apologize either to friend or foe." (New York "American.") 

As a result of the confiscation of hundreds of millions of dollars' worth 
of alien property, a sensational scandal "developed, which was aired 
in the House and Senate and had a perceptible bearing on the defeat of 
the League of Nations treaty in the Senate. Among other things, Palmer, 
ultimately appointed Attorney General, was charged with having sold 
the great Bosch magneto works, valued at $16,000,000, for $4,000,- 
000, giving the preference to friends; and Representative J. Hampton 
Moore, referring to Francis P. Garvan, Mr. Palmer's successor as 
Custodian, demanded to know: "Why the same Frank P. Garvan, the 
distinguished criminal lawyer of New York, had recently been elected 
to and accepted the presidency of the Chemical Foundation, which has 
taken over all the German patents in the United States for the manu- 
facture of dye stuffs through an arrangement with the Alien Property 
Custodian, A. Mitchell Palmer, now Attorney General?" 

In his speech of June 21, 1919, in the House, Mr. Moore named a 
number of big trust operators and financiers, including Cleveland H, 
Dodge, as having formed the Chemical Foundation and taking over 
"4,500 patents which Mr. Palmer and Mr. Garvan, this distinguished 
criminal lawyer from New York, the successor of Mr. Palmer as Alien 
Property Custodian, found on file in the Patent Office, and which they 
seized on the ground that they belonged to certain German patentees." 
(New York "Times," June 22, 1919.) 

Hardly a pretence is made by the administration that the seizure 
was legal, and the death-blow to all such pretensions was delivered 
when, in urging the ratification of the Versailles treaty by the Senate, 
Senator Hitchcock, the administration's Senate leader, declared: 

231 



Through the treaty we will get very much of importance. . . . 
In violation of all international law and treaties, we have made 
disposition of a billion dollars of German-owned property here. 
The treaty validates all that. 

It is important that Americans should know the facts in the case, 
however unpopular the narrative may be, in order that they may set 
themselves right before the world, or at least be prepared for the 
wave of prejudice which is bound to be excited by the remarkable pro- 
ceedings. Quoting Walter T. Rose, a prominent Chicago exporter 
jus? returned from a tour of Europe, the New York "Sun" of November 
28, 1919, said: "It is an unfortunate fact that hardly anywhere in 
Europe does one hear good opinions of America and Americans." 
Mr. Rose gathered his opinions in France and England as well as in 
central Europe. The course of the Custodian of Alien Property estab- 
lishes a precedent that, of course, will be heeded by those associated 
with us in the war no less than by our late enemies. It is a warning 
that the filing of patents and patented processes insures no immunity 
from confiscation in the event of war, and a warning to foreign in- 
vestors to go slow in investing their money in industries in the 
United States. To counteract this policy imposes a moral task upon 
every citizen of the United States who holds the honor of his country 
above a dollar. For we shall have flaunted in our faces this passage 
from President Wilson's address to Congress, April 2, 1917: 

We shall, I feel confident, conduct our operations as belliger- 
ents without passion, and ourselves observe with proud punctilio 
the principles of right and fair play we profess to be fighting for. 
... It will be easier for us to conduct ourselves as belligerents 
in a high spirit of right and fairness because we act, not in 
enmity of a people or with a desire to bring any injur}' or dis- 
advantage upon them, but only in opposition to an irresponsible 
government. We are, let me say again, the sincere friends of 
the German people, and shall desire nothing so much as the 
early re-establishment of intimate relations of mutual advantage 
between us — however hard it may be for them, for the time 
being, to believe this is spoken from our hearts. 

In a hearing before a Senate committee investigating his acts as 
Custodian, Mr. Palmer named as his advisory committee. Otto Barnard, 
Cleveland H. Dodge, George L. Ingraham and Alex Griswold, Jr. He 
asserted that he had seized 40,000 German properties. Upon his list 
were the names of 32 Germans and Austrian-Hungarians interned as 
enemy aliens, whose property was taken over by him. Their names 
and the value of their property follows: 

Carl Heynan, $487,748; Adolf Pave'nstedt, $1,661,408; E. K. Victor, 
$274,092; Edward Lutz, $117,865; Hugo Schmidt, $89,434; F. Staflforth, 
$540,408; Ad. Fischer, $477,396; F. Rosenberg, $228,484; Max Breitung, 

2Z2 



$46,006; Isaac Straus, $36,688; Franz Bopp, $31,782; Adolf Kessler, 
$205,165; Robert Tumler, $48,655;^ Dr. Ernst Kunwald, $26,456; Fritz 
Bergmeier, $28,651; Dr. Karl Muck, $82,181; Hans Cron, $54,436; 
J. H. Beckmann, $120,360; Paul Lubeke, $30,930; Johannes Schlenzig, 
$58,967; Max Reinhard, $52,433; Gunther Weiske, $138,255; M. S. 
Barnet, $42,766; Heinrich Beckisch, $25,811; Frank H. Meyer, $60,928; 
Arthur Richter, $50,012; Herbert Clemens, $53,813; Fritz Materna, 
$40,000; William H. Steinmann, $32,768; Julius Pirnitzer, $84,656; 
Desider W. B. de Waray, $200,166; C. F. Banning, $44,000. 

Among the amounts confiscated was $3,000 left in the will of Mrs. 
Louisa Manada, of Wyoming, for the care of blind soldiers in Berlin, 
her home going to a hospital in this country. 

Among those mentioned as placed in charge of enemy property 
by the Custodian, in his report to the Senate, March 1, 1919, appear 
the names of several prominent newspaper men and politicians: Don 
C. Seitz, publisher of the New York "World," and George McAneny, 
publisher of the New York "Times," two strong administration papers, 
both of whom were trustees of the Bridgeport Projectile Company. 
Mr. McAneny and Henry Morgenthau, former ambassador to Turkey, 
were made trustees of the American Metal Company, another enemy 
concern. Gavin McNab, of San Francisco, a leading Democratic 
politician of California, was made a trustee of the Charles E. Houson 
Estate Company, the Marvin Estate Company and the J. H. von 
Schroeder Investment Company. 

In the investigation Mr. Palmer denied the various charges, and 
others referred to, as well as the allegation, aired in the New York 
"World," that his name corresponded with the initials of a certain M. P. 
mentioned in the captured notes of Dr. Albert, the German agent, 
who was referred to as friendly to Germany. He stated that "no other 
course than the seizure was compatible with the safety of Amer- 
ican institutions," to which reply was made from Germany that the 
$700,000,000 investments by Germans in this country did not reach 
"one-half of the total value, for instance, of a single American in- 
dustrial company like the United States Steel Corporation, and not 
even approximately one per cent, of the total value of American in- 
dustrial enterprises." The immense business built up here by the Ger- 
mans was, Mr. Palmer said, lost to the Germans forever, and there 
was absolutely no hope for the development of American chemical 
industries under the old conditions. He defended the Bosch seizure 
on the ground of a plot by the manager to promise special apparatus 
to the British for their aeroplanes without intending to deliver them. 

Millions of dollars' worth of property belonging to women of Amer- 
ican birth, married to German and Austrian subjects, was taken over 
by the Custodian. Many prominent women are in the list, including 
Countess Gladys Vanderbilt-Szechenyi, whose property as taken over 

2ZZ 



amounts to nearly $4,000,000 in securities in addition to the income 
from a $5,000,000 trust fund created under the will of her father. 

The list includes: 

Baroness Augusta Louise von Alten, Budapest, Hungary, formerly 
Augusta L. De Haven, and Sarah E. von Camps Hanover, Welfel, 
Germany, formerly Sarah E. De Haven, granddaughters of the late 
Louisa G. Bigelow, formerly of Chicago. Estate valued at about 
$1,460,000. 

Baroness Clara Erhart von Truchsess, Dusseldorf, Germany, form- 
erly Clara Erhart, of New York. Life estate in trust fund of $500,000; 
securities valued at $600,000. 

Gertrude, Baroness von Bocklin, Baden, Germany, formerly Gertrude 
Berwind, of Philadelphia. Under the will of Charles F. Berwind, her 
father, she received more than $300,000 in property, which was put in 
trust with property received by the other heirs. 

Baroness Olivia Louise von Rothkirch, Schlesien, Germany, formerly 
Olivia Louise Brown, daughter of William John Brown, of New York. 
Life interest in trust, approximating $1,000,000. 

Baroness Matilda L. Bornemissa, Budapest, Austria; Baroness Mar- 
garet von Wucherer and Anna von Dory Johahaza, both of Steier- 
mark, Austria, daughters of the late James Price, of Philadelphia, and 
Baroness Manon Dumreicher, Baron Tibor von Berg, Baron Tassilo 
von Berg and Baron Max von Berg, children of the deceased daughter, 
Baroness Sallie Mae Berg. The above enemies share an income of the 
trust under the will of Sarah Maria Price, valued at $275,000, and also 
in a trust created under the will of Samuel Harlan, Jr., valued at 
$75,000. 

Baroness Cornelia C. Zedlitz, Berlin, Germany, formerly Cornelia 
Carnochan Roosevelt, daughter of the late Charles Y. Roosevelt, of 
New York. Under a trust agreement made in 1889 in contemplation of 
marriage, her property, valued at about $1,000,000, was put in trust, 
reserving to her a life interest. Personal property valued at $200,000 
was also taken over. 

Countess Marguerite Isabelle Eugenie Victorine de Stuers Oben- 
dorfT, wife of the former German Ambassador to Austria, and grand- 
niece of the late Henry Astor, grandson of the original John Jacob 
Astor, and inheritor of a share in his estate. Her mother was 
Countess Margaret Laura Zhorowski, daughter of Alida Astor, a 
sister of Henry Astor, and daughter of William Astor. Trust fund 
$60,000, created by deed of trust by her father; cash, $949,225 and eight- 
fifteenths interest in New York city property. 

Countess von Francken, Sierstorpff, Zyrowa Leschnitz, Prussia, 
formerly Mary Knowlton, daughter of Edwin F. Knowlton, of New 
York. Life interest trust fund $1,200,000, left under the will of her 

234 



father; Countess Alice Grote, Schloss Varechentin, Mecklenburg, 
Germany, formerly Alice von Bergen, daughter of Anthony von Bergen 
of New York. Life interest, $250,000. 

Countess Gladys Vanderbilt Szechenyi, Budapest, Hungary, daughter 
of the late Cornelius Vanderbilt and Alice G. Vanderbilt.- Nearly 
$4,000,000 in securities taken over; also income from $5,000,000 trust 
fund created under the will of her father. 

Countess Harriet Sigray, Ivancz Nagycsakny, Hungary, daughter of 
the late Marcus Daly, of Montana, a sister of Mrs. James Gerard, 
wife of the former Ambassador to Germany. Securities taken over, 
$1,000,000. 

Countess Gladys McMillan Cornet, Brussels, Belgium, formerly 
Gladys McMillan, daughter of the late James H. McMillan, of Detroit. 
Life interest in one-tenth of trust of $4,500,000; life interest in two- 
thirds of trust of $450,000; life estate one-tenth trust of $600,000 and 
securities valued at $149,725. 

Countess Elizabeth T. P. de Gasquet-James, Krain, Austria, formerly 
Elizabeth T. Pratt James, of Esopus, N. Y. Life estate in $135,000 
and bonds, $59,000. 

Lily Freifrau Treusch von Buttlar Brandenfees, Stettin, Germany, 
formerly Lilly G. Stetson, daughter of the late Isaiah Stetson, of 
Bangor, Me. Securities taken over valued at $250,000. 

Jayta Humphreys von Wolf, Munich, Germany, daughter of the late 
Frederic Humphreys, of New York. Life interest in a trust valued 
about $50,000. 

Rosa K. Schertel von Burtenbach, daughter of the late Frederick 
Schaefer, of New York. Under trust created in will of father, she has 
life interest of $200,000. 

Clara von Gontard, Berlin, Germany, daughter of the late Adolphus 
Busch and Lilly Busch, of St. Louis. Life interest in trust fund 
created under the will of Adolphus Busch, securities valued at $900,000, 
including stock holdings in Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company of 
St. Louis. 

Mary Trowbridge von Zepplin, Germany, formerly Mary Wilkens, 
Detroit, wife of Conrad von Zepplin and daughter of the late Lizzie 
C. Wilkens, of Detroit. Life estate trust fund, $40,000. 

Clara Bauer von Rosenthal, Frankfort-am-Main, Germany, formerly 
Clara Bauer, daughter of the late Augustus Bauer, Chicago. Life in- 
terest in trust of $35,000. 

Mary Grace von der Hellan, Hamburg, Germany, formerly Mary 
Grace Meissner, Garden City, New York. Life interest in trust created 
by herself just prior to her marriage, $65,000, and bank balance, 
$304,472. 

235 



Charlotte von Gorrisen, Hamburg, Germany, formerly Charlotte 
Anderson, daughter of the late Elbert J. Anderson, of Newport, R. I. 
Small interest in the estate of her father. 

Alice von Buchwaldt, Bremen, Germany, and Anna Maria von Hose, 
Dresden, Germany, daughters of William Wilkens, deceased, of Balti- 
more. Each has a .life interest in a trust fund under the will of her 
father of about $180,000. 

Natalie Burleigh von Ohnesorge, Provinz Posen, Germany, daughter 
of Sarah B. Conklin, of New York. Life estate in a trust under will 
of her father, $140,000. 

Florence Grafin von Schwerin, Munich, Germany, formerly Florence 
Wann, of St. Paul, Minn. Daughter of the late John Wann, deceased. 
Property taken over, $20,000; life interest in trust created under the 
will of her father, $40,000. Interest in the trust created by deed of trust 
of her brother, Thomas Leslie Wann, consisting of valuable real estate 
in St. Paul. 

Children of Sophie von Bohlen und Halbach, Baden, Germany, for- 
merly Sophie Bohlen, daughter of Gen. William Henry Charles Bohlen, 
of Pennsylvania. She died in 1915 and her children, all residing in 
Germany, became beneficiaries of her estate, including trust funds 
totaling $1,500,000. 

Helen H. von Stralenheim, Dresden, Germany; Louise von Trutz- 
chler zum Falkenstein, Vogtland, Germany, and Josephine von Arnim, 
Dresden, Germany, daughters of David Leavitt, deceased, late of New 
York. Each has life estate one-fifth of $225,000 trust. 

Sophie von Arenstorff, Frankfort-a-Oder, Germany. Under the 
will of Edward G. Halls, deceased, late of Chicago, above enemy, a 
granddaughter, has a life interest in three-tenths of the estate, valued 
at $267,000. 

Katie von Kracker, Mecklenburg, Germany, formerly Katie Elias, 
daughter of the late Henry Elias, of New York, life interest in one- 
half of a trust valued at $300,000. 

Mr. Palmer's assertion that Germany set the example by seizing 
American property in Germany cannot be sustained by him. 

Villard, Henry. — A distinguished war correspondent during the 
Civil War, afterwards built the Northern Pacific Railroad, largely 
with German capital. Born in Speyer, 1835. His real name was 
Heinrich Hillgard. Married a daughter of William Lloyd Garrison, 
famous abolitionist. Father of Oswald Garrison Villard, editor of 
"The Nation." 

Vote on War in Congress. — A resolution declaring the United States 
in a state of^war "with the imperial German Government" on the 
grounds that the imperial German government had committed re- 

236 



peated acts of war against the government and the people of the 
United States and that in consequence of these acts war had been 
thrust upon the United States, was passed in the Senate on April 5 
and in the House on April 6, 1917. 

In neither the Senate nor the House of Representatives was the 
resolution passed by a unanimous vote. 

In the Senate on April 5 it passed by a vote of 82 to 6, and in the 
House by a vote of ZJZ to 50. No obstructions were resorted to, 
and comparatively a short time was consumed on both sides in 
speeches devoted to individual explanations. 

In the Senate 43 Democrats and 39 Republicans voted aye and in 
the House 193 Democrats, 177 Republicans and three Independents 
(Fall of Massachusetts, Martin of Louisiana and Schall of Minnesota) 
voted affirmatively, while 16 Democrats and 32 Republicans, 1 Socialist 
and 1 Independent (Randall) voted in the negative. Miss Rankin, 
the first woman member of the lower House of Congress, voted 
against war. 

The Senators voting "no" were Lane, Stone and Vardaman, Demo-; 
crats, and Gronna, La Follette and Norris, Republicans. 

In the lower House the members who voted against war were the 
following: 

Alabama — Almon, Burnett. 

California — Church, Hayes, Randall. 

Colorado — Hilliard, Keating. 

Illinois — Britten, Rodenberg, Fuller, Wheeler, King, Mason. 

Iowa — 'Haugen, Woods, Hull. 

Kansas — Connelly, Little. 

Michigan — Bacon. 

Minnesota — Davis, Knutson, Van Dyke, Lundeen. 

Missouri — Decker, Igoe, Hensley, Shackleford. 

Montana — Rankin. 

Nebraska — Kinkaid, Reavis, Sloan. 

Nevada — Roberts. 

New York — London. 

North Carolina — Kitchin. 

Ohio — Sherwood. 

South Carolina — Dominick. 

South Dakota — Dillon, Johnson. 

Texas — McLemore. 

Washington — Dill, La Follette. 

237 



Wisconsin — Browne, Gary, Cooper, Esch, Frear, Nelson, Stafford, 
Davidson, Voight. 

Paired, 6; absent by illnesses, 2; not voting, 2; vacancies, 2. 

Speaker Clark did not vote. 

The debate in both Houses will rank among the most memorable 
in the history of the country. With a degree of courage amounting 
to heroism, Senators La Follette of Wisconsin, Stone of Missouri 
and Norris of Nebraska spoke in opposition to the adoption of the 
resolution; but the surprise came in the House when the Democratic 
floor leader, Kitchin, announced his opposition to the measure. It 
should not be assumed that any of the men in either branch of Con- 
gress took the position in a spirit of light-hearted opposition. Not 
one among them but realized the heavy responsibility of his action. 
With a newspaper clamor for war unequaled in the history of the 
United States, with the bitter denunciation of Senators who voted 
against the armed ship bill in March still ringing in their ears, and 
with the widespread propaganda carried to the doors of Congress 
by those anxious for war, every legislator felt the gravity of his step 
in refusing to sanction the necessary authority which would plunge 
the country into the European conflagration. 

An analysis of the vote shows that not a single representative of 
the people from an Eastern State (except New York, London, Social- 
ist) voted against war. Every negative vote came from the West and 
South. The favorite slogan that the agitation against war emanated 
wholly from German sources was not verified by facts. It is said 
that there is hardly a German vote in the North Carolina district 
represented by Kitchin. No -such influence operated upon Senator 
Vardaman of Mississippi, nor upon the two members from Alabama. 

The largest vote against war came from Wisconsin, where, aside 
from Senator La Follette, nine members of the lower House were 
found on the negative side and but two on the affirmative, exclusive 
of Senator Husting. The latter went out of his way to make a bitter 
attack on the German-Americans and called the people of his State 
disloyal if they refused "to back up the President in the course he 
has decided to take." He said this was the only question at issue, 
as he believed that if the question of peace or war only were sub- 
mitted to the people war would be voted down. 

Sentiment in his State on the war question was indicated by the 
large anti-war vote of the Wisconsin delegation and the referendum 
votes taken in Sheboygan and Monroe on April 3. In the former place 
only 17 out of 4,000 votes cast were for war, and in the latter 954 
votes were against and 95 for war. A relative result was recorded 
from a Minnesota referendum. 

Several incidents of interest out of the common marked the great 

238 



debate, but there was a noticeable absence of the high feeling that 
accompanied the declaration of war against Spain. For part of the 
day the House was half empty while the debate was in progress and 
comparatively few people appeared in the galleries. 

Representative Kitchin declared that he expected his vote against 
war to end his political career, but that he nevertheless could not act 
against his conscientious convictions. A rampant Southern fire-eater 
named Heflin, hailing from Alabama, attacked Kitchin and declared 
that the latter's attitude should prompt him to resign from Congress, 
as he did not represent the opinion of the country. 

The answer to this suggestion was a volley of hisses from the 
Democratic side of the House; and while Miss Rankin, tears in her 
eyes as she found herself confronted with the serious problem of 
doing a popular thing or following her convictions, declared in a 
broken voice, "I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for 
war — I vote no," applause greeted her decision even from those who 
were voting the other way. 

Kitchin was chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, which has 
in charge the appropriations necessary to carry on the war. He dis- 
tinctly announced that if war were declared he would present no ob- 
structions to its successful conduct but would do all that was required 
of him as a member of the House. 

In the main the debate was conducted with marked decorum. Little 
acrimonious discussion developed. The supporters of the resolution 
calmly and seriously declared that a state of war really existed as 
a result of German violations of American rights, while the opponents 
of war insisted that the German submarine campaign was forced by 
the illegal British blockade, which w^as as much a violation of Ameri- 
can rights as submarine warfare. 

The same apathy which characterized the situation on the floor in 
general marked the reception of the speeches. Applause at best was 
scattered, and the absence of patriotic display was noticeable. Mem- 
bers were in a serious mood and talked and voted with great solemnity. 
Kitchin, before delivering his stirring anti-war speech, had spent six 
hours in consultation with proponents and opponents of war, and 
decided to oppose the resolution only after he had carefully weighed 
his action. 

The only member from Texas who voted against war was Repre- 
sentative McLemore, the author of the famous McLemore resolution, 
whose adoption was intended to forestall the possibility of war with 
Germany. 

In the House the opening speech against the resolution was deliv- 
ered by Representative Cooper, of Wisconsin, who made an eloquent 
plea in behalf of his contention that the United States should proceed 

239 



against England as well as against Germany, as both had equally 
acted illegally and indefensibly in violating American rights. If 
we had cause for war against one we had as just cause against the 
other offender. Mr. Cooper was the ranking Republican member of 
the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the House. 

The only vote against war from Ohio, out of a total of 24 in both 
Houses, including Nicholas Longworth, the son-in-law of Theodore 
Roosevelt, was cast by Representative Sherwood of Toledo. He 
enlisted in the Union Army April 16, 1861, as a private and was 
mustered out as Brigadier-General October 8, 1865; was in 43 battles 
and 123 days under fire and was six times complimented in special 
orders by commanding generals for gallant conduct in battle; com- 
manded his regiment in all the battles of the Atlanta campaign, and 
after the battles of Franklin and Nashville, Tenn., upon the recom- 
mendation of the officers of his brigade and division, he was made 
brevet brigadier general by President Lincoln for long and faithful 
service and conspicuous gallantry at the battles of Resaca, Atlanta, 
Franklin and Nashville. 

War of 1870-71. — What may be expected from the process of re- 
writing our school histories of American events by the friends of 
England is patent from the manner in which some of the most vital 
historical data of the world's history was distorted during the war. . 
For example, it has been persistently dinned into the minds of Amer- 
icans that France was trapped into war with Prussia in 1870 by the 
sybtle diplomatic strategy of Bismarck, who is represented as having 
forged a dispatch. The facts are easily accessible in "Bismarck, the 
Man and the Statesman," published by Harper Brothers in 1899, in 
which the episodes and events, including the manner of the alleged 
dispatch, are treated with a degree of candor that can leave no doubt 
as to the responsibility for the war. It can be found in Chapter 
XXVII, entitled "The Ems Dispatch." 

Th« facts in the case are that France desired war with Prussia, but 
was taken by surprise when it found the South German states allied 
with Prussia, instead of rushing to the aid of France, as Napoleon III 
had confidently expected. If a nation can be inflamed to go to war 
by a dispatch which simply recorded that King William of Prussia 
had refused to intermeddle with the succession to the Crown of 
Spain and declined to continue the discussion of the subject with the 
French minister, Benedetti, it is hardly probable that the war could 
have been prevented under any circumstances. Accordingly, France 
declared war, not Prussia. Napoleon III at the time was regulating 
affairs throughout the universe, in Italy as well as in Mexico, where 
he set up a throne supported by French arms, which violated the 
Monroe Doctrine and almost brought us to grips with France. 

240 



The popular description of France as a peace-loving nation is not 
borne out by many centuries of her history, as even Frenchmen admit. 
The Cock of Gaul is a fighting cock, declares Deputy Pierre Brizon 
in a recent (1919) issue of the French periodical, "La Vague": 

They fired cannon to announce Peace! 

What would you have done? They are used to blood! They 
are the sons of the "Cock of Gaul." 

And the "Cock of Gaul" throusrh the centuries has carried 
war over the whole world — into Italy, into Germany, into Spain, 
into England, into Switzerland, into Austria, into Ireland, into 
the Scandinavian countries, into Russia, into Syria, to the Indies, 
to Mexico, into Algeria, into Tunis, to the Antilles, to Senegal, 
into the Conero, to Madagascar, into China, to Morocco, to the 
Ends of the Earth, 

No people for a thousand years have been more warlike than 
the French. No one has had to an equal des^ree with them the 
silly vanity of "glory" and of "victory." No one has caused 
more blood to run over the earth. 

Of course, this does not furnish an excuse for the Vandals, 
the Mongols, the Turks, the Russians, the English or the 
Prussians, 

No, but — they fired cannon in Paris to announce Peacel 

The absurdity that Prussia lured France into a war in 1870 is 
repudiated by no less an authority than Premier Georges Clemenceau, 
In an article which he contributed to the "Saturday Evening Post," of 
October 24, 1914, under the title, "The Cause of France," (p. 1, col. 2), 
he states: 

In 1870 Napoleon ITT in a moment of follv declared war on 
Germany [should be Prussial without even having the excuse 
of being in a state of militarv prenaredness. No ^-me Frenchman 
ha55 ever hesitated to admit that the wrone^s of that day were 
committed by our side. Dearly we have paid for them. 

War Lies Repudiated by British Press, — The following article deals 
with venerable subjects that have done much to inflame international 
hatred and misunderstandings. It is taken from the Glasgow "For- 
ward," of Glasgow, Scotland (1919), and will have a tendency, it is 
hoped, to enlighten the minds of many who have believed everything 
that was printed about war's atrocities: 

We are continually receiving requests for information about the 
Lusitania, poison gas, aerial bombs, corpse fat, and other popular 
stock-in-trade of the warmonger. We cannot keep repeating our 
exposures of wartime falsehoods and delusions, and we ask our readers 
to keep the following facts beside them, and refrain from subjecting 
us to a continual stream of postal queries. 

"Was the Lusitania armed?" 

No. But she was carrying munitions of war. Lord Mersey, chair- 
man of the Court of Enquiry into the sinking of the Lusitania, said: 

241 



"The 5,000 cases of ammunition on board were 50 yards away from 
where the torpedo struck the ship" (Glasgow "Evening Citizen" re- 
port, July 17, 1915). 

"Did the German people rejoice?" 

No. There was neither hilarity nor medals nor school beflagging. 
The London "Times" reported that "Vorwarts" "deeply deplored" 
the sinking. So did the German naval critic, Captain Persius. 

Mr. John Murray, the publisher, issued last October an authorita- 
tive book from the pen of the correspondent of the Associated Press 
of America in Germany, Mr. George A. Schreiner, who was in Ger- 
many during the Lusitania period. Mr. Schreiner's dispatches were 
extensively quoted in the patriotic British press, and his testimony 
is above suspicion. His book, "The Iron Ration" (pp. 291-2), says: 

The greatest shock the German public received was the news 
that the Lusitania had been sunk. 

For a day or two a minority held that the action was eminently 
correct. But even that minority dwindled rapidly. 

For many weeks the German public was in doubt as to what 
it all meant. The thinking element was groping about in the 
dark. What was the purpose of picking out a ship with so 
many passengers on board? Then the news came that the pas- 
sengers had been warned not to travel on the steamer. That 
removed all doubt that the vessel had been singled out for 
attack. 

The government remained silent. It had nothing to say. The 
press, standing in fear of the censor and his power to suspend 
publication, was mute. Little by little it became known that 
there had been an accident. The commander of the submarine 
sent out to torpedo the ship had been instructed to fire at the 
forward hold, so that the passengers could get off before the 
vessel sank. Either a boiler of the ship or (they continued) 
an ammunition cargo had given unlooked-for assistance to the 
torpedo. The ship had gone down. Nothing weaned the Ger- 
man public so much away from the old order of government as 
did the Lusitania affair. The act seemed useless, wanton, ill- 
considered. The doctrine of governmental infallibility came 
near to being wrecked. The Germans began to lose confidence 
in the wisdom of the men who had been credited in the past with 
being the very quintessence of all knowledge, mundane and 
celestial. Admiral Tirpitz had to go. Germany's allies, too, 
were not pleased. In Austria and Hungary the act was severely 
criticized, and in Turkey I found much disapproval of the 
thing. 

"The 'Old Contemptible' Lie." 

The "New Illustrated" (Lord NorthclifTe's latest journalistic ven- 
ture) declared, in March of this year: 

The story that the Kaiser called General French's force a 
"contemptible little army" served a useful purpose in working 

242 



up fierce anger against the enemy in Britain, but it was an 
invention. The Kaiser was not so foolish as to say what the 
German General Staff would have known to be nonsense. 

"The Corpse Fat Lie." 

The "Times" started the lie that the Germans had built factories 
for extracting grease from the bodies of dead soldiers. This grease 
was used as margarine. 

Lord Robert Cecil latterly admitted in the House of Commons that 
there was no evidence of the story; but, of course, he believed the 
Germans capable of it. The London comic (?) papers issued car- 
toons of a German looking at a pot of grease and soliloquizing: "Alas! 
my poor brother!" But the lie was finally exposed and disappeared 
even from the stock-in-trade of the British Workers' League — and, 
God knows, they were loth to let anything go. 

"Who first bombed from the sky?" 

The National War Savings Committee issued synopses of their 
lantern lectures last year for propaganda purposes. Here are the 
synopses of the two slides dealing with the first bomb dropped on 
towns: 

A lantern picture, entitled "War in the Air," by C. G. Grey (editor 
of "Aeroplane"), issued by the National War Savings Committee, 
Salisbury Square, London, E. C. 4 (page 7). 

"Slide 32 — The navy's land machines went over to Belgium and it 
is to the credit of the R. N. A. S. that the first hostile missiles which 
fell on German soil were bombs dropped by R. N. A. S. pilots on 
Cologne and Dusseldorf. . . . 

"Slide 35 — It is interesting to note that these early raids by the 
R. N. A. S. were the first example of bomb-dropping attacks from the 
air in any way, and the only pity is that we had not at the beginning 
of the war enough aeroplanes." 

"Priority in poison gas." 

The Glasgow "Evening News (January 26, 1918) frankly admitted 
that: 

It appears that mustard gas, generally believed to have been 
invented by the Germans, was discovered by the late Professor 
Guthrie at the Royal College, Mauritius. 

The London "Times," on August 2, 1914, reproduced from the 
French government organ, "Le Temps," a paragraph reporting that 
M. Turpin has offered to the French Ministry of War a shell filled 
with a chemical compound discovered by him, and called Turpinite. 
Numbers of these shells seem to have been used by the French artil- 
lery, and they were essentially such gas shells as the Germans are 
now using. Numerous correspondents, claiming to be eye-witnesses, 

243 



reported their terrible effects in the British press during October and 
November, 1914. We learned that the gas liberated from the explo- 
sion of one of these shells was enough to asphyxiate an entire platoon 
of Germans. After death they were observed to be standing erect and 
shoulder to shoulder in their trenches, and, after killing them with this 
marvelous celerity, the gas would roll on and stifle entire flocks of 
sheep feeding in fields in their rear. The British press writers saw 
nothing to blame in the use against Germans of Turpinite; on the 
contrary, they openly exulted in its terrible effects. Subsequently, 
much to their regret, Turpinite was given up, because it was so dan- 
gerous to the munition workers who had to pour it into the shell 
cases. Some weeks later the Germans began to use with more success 
the same expedient. 

The London "Illustrated News" (May 13, 1915) published a "thrill- 
ing" picture of 5 German officers asphyxiated by British lyddite. The 
descriptive lines below the picture say: 

"One of the correspondents at the front tells a thrilling story of 
the havoc wrought by lyddite shells used by our artillery in Flanders. 
The fumes of the lyddite are very poisonous, so much so that some 
of our troops wore masks for the nose and mouth. After one battle, 
in which the German trenches had been shelled with lyydite, an ofiicer 
found a card party of five officers stone dead. Looking at them in the 
bright moonlight, he was struck by their resemblance to waxwork 
figures. They were in perfectly natural poses, but the bright yellow 
of their skins showed the manner of their death — asphyxiation by 
lyddite." 

The first inventor of poison gas was Lord Dundonald during the 
Crimean war (see "The Panmure Papers," published in 1908 by Hodder 
& Stoughton, and the "Candid Review," August, 1915). It was at 
the time of the Crimean war rejected by the English as "too horrible." 

There were, of course, atrocities during the war — German, Austrian, 
Italian, British, Serbian, French. All war is an atrocity, but the hate 
was fanned and the murder kept going by the steady press campaigns 
of mendacity in every country, and here in Britain we were subjected 
to more than our fair share of it. 

Washington's Bodyguard. — At the outbreak of the war of inde- 
pendence Herkimer, Muhlenberg and Schlatter gathered the Germans 
in the Mohawk Valley and the Virginia Valley together and organized 
them into companies for service. Baron von Ottendorff, another 
German soldier, recruited and drilled the famous Armand Xegion. 
And when Washington's first bodyguard was suspected of treasonable 
sentiments and plans it was dismissed and a new bodyguard, con- 
sisting almost entirely of Germans, was formed. This new bodyguard 
was supported by a troop of cavalry consisting entirely of Germans, 

244 



under the command of Major Barth von Heer, one of Frederick the 
Great's finest cavalry officers. This troop stood by Washington during 
the entire war, and twelve of them escorted him to Mt. Vernon when 
he retired. — ("The European War of 1914," by Prof. John W. Burgess, 
Chap. IV, p. 115.) 

Washington's Tribute. — The Philadelphia German Lutherans held 
a memorial service on May 27, 1917, made doubly impressive at 
Zion's Church, by the circulation of a letter written to the congrega- 
tion by George Washington, in reply to congratulations on his first 
election as President of the United States. The letter concludes with 
the following words: 

From the excellent character for dilligence, sobriety and virtue 
which the Germans in general, who are settled in America have 
ever maintained, I cannot forbear felicitating myself on receiv- 
ing from respectable a number of them such strong assurance 
of their afiFection for my person, confidence in my integrity, and 
real zeal to support me in m.y endeavors for promoting the wel- 
fare of our common country. 

Similar expressions are contained in a letter written by Jefferson, 
which see elsewhere. The church to whose congregation Washing- 
ton's letter was addressed, is the most historic church in the northern 
part of the United States, since it was built in 1742, under the direction 
of the patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America, Heinrich M. 
Muhlenberg, father of General Muhlenberg, of Revolutionary fame. 
For 178 years the service has been conducted in the German language. 

Weiser, Conrad. — Along with Franz Daniel Pastorius, Jacob Leisler 
and John Peter Zenger, the name of Conrad Weiser deserves to be 
commemorated as one of the outstanding figures of early American 
history, for no man of his period exercised such influence with the 
Indians or did so much to promote the peaceful development of the 
settlements by insuring the friendship of the Six Nations. The follow- 
ing sketch of this famous character in American history is taken from 
"Eminent Americans" by Benson J. Lossing: 

"One of the most noted agents of communication between the white 
men and the Indians was Conrad Weiser, a native of Germany, who 
came to America in early life and settled with his father in the present 
Schoharie County, N. Y., in 1713. They left England in 1712 and were 
seventeen months on the voyage. Young Weiser became a great 
favorite with the Iroquois Indians in the Schoharie and Mohawk val- 
leys, with whom he spent much of his life. Late in 1714 the elder 
Weiser and about thirty other families who had settled in Schoharie, 
becoming dissatisfied with attempts to tax them, set out for Tulpe- 
hockon in Pennsylvania, by way of the Susquehanna River, and settled 

245 



there. But young Weiser was enamoured of the free 'life of the 
savage. He was naturalized by them and became thoroughly versed 
in the language of the whole Six Nations, as the Iroquois Confed- 
eracy in New York was called. He became confidential interpreter 
and messenger for the Province of Pennsylvania among the Indians 
and assisted at many important treaties. The governor of Virginia 
commissioned him to visit the grand council at Onondago in 1737 
and with only a Dutchman and three Indians he traversed the track- 
less forest for 500 miles for that purpose. He went on a similar 
mission from Philadelphia to Shamokin (Sunbury) in 1744. At Read- 
ing he established an Indian agency and trading post. When the 
French on the frontier made hostile demonstrations in 1755 he was 
commissioned a colonel of a volunteer regiment from Berks County, 
and in 1758 he attended the great gathering of Indian chiefs in council 
with white commissioners at Easton. Such was the affection of the 
Indians for Weiser that for many years after his death they were in 
the habit of visiting his grave and strewing flowers upon it. Mr. Weis- 
er's daughter married Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, D. D., the founder 
of the Luthern Church in America." 

One of his grandsons was General Muhlenberg, another was the 
first Speaker of the House of Congress. General Washington said 
of him: "Posterity will not forget his just deserts." 

Wetzel, Lou. — The present generation is not too old to recall the 
flood of Indian stories of their youth, for in the 70s the Indian was 
still a factor in the contest for the development of the West and the 
papers at times contained thrilling accounts of battles with Indians 
on our frontier. Cooper was still a much-read novelist, and less 
famous writers still sought their inspiration in the French and In- 
dian wars, the wars which the English and Tories, with their Indian 
allies, carried into the valleys of the Schoharie and the Mohawk, as 
well as in the bloody conflicts in Kentucky and Ohio. In these stories 
no names were of more frequent occurrence than those of Lou Wetzel, 
the scout and Indian fighter, and Simon Girty, the renegade. Both 
these names are strictly historic. Wetzel, was next to Daniel Boone, 
the mcst famous frontiersman of our early middle west history. 
His father was born in the Palatinate and came to Pennsylvania, 
settling afterwards in Ohio, where each of his four sons won fame as 
frontiersmen, scouts and guides, but above all, Lou, who after an 
eventful career and many hairbreadth escapes, died in Texas and was 
buried on the banks of the Brazos. Other noted Indian fighters of 
the period who were of German descent were Peter Nieswanger, 
Jacob Weiser, Carl Bilderbach, John Warth and George Rufner. 
The Poes, too, were well known in early border history, and were 
the sons of German settlers from Frederick County, Md. The elder, 

246 



Frederick Poe, who moved west in 1774, and died in 1840 at the age 
of 93, was, like his younger brother, Andrew, a typical backwoodsman, 
contesting for every foot of ground with the native Indian. 

Wirt, William. — Famous jurist and author. During three presi- 
dential terms Attorney General of the United States; appointed by 
President Monroe to that office in 1817-18; resigned under John 
Quincy Adams, March 3, 1829. Born at Bladensburg, Md., November 
18, 1772, becoming a poor orphan at an early age. Learned Latin and 
Greek and studied law at Montgomery Court House, being licensed 
to practice in the fall of 1792. Commenced his professional career 
at Culpeper Courthouse, Va., the same year and soon became eminent 
socially and professionally. In 1802 received the appointment of 
chancellor of the eastern district of Virginia. Wrote his beautiful 
essays under the name of "The British Spy" and in 1807 prosecuted 
Aaron Burr for treason. His great speech on that occasion made 
him famous. Was a member of the Virginia Legislature in 1808, and 
from that time until after the war pursued his profession successfully 
until summoned into the Cabinet of President Monroe. In 1832 he 
was nominated by the anti-Masonic party for President of the United 
States, but received only the electoral vote of Vermont. He died 
February 18, 1834. The most famous production of his pen is a "Life 
of Patrick Henry." Mr. Wirt never forgot his German antecedance 
and during 1833 engaged in founding a colony of Germans in Florida, 
but the venture was not successful. Lossing says "he was greatly 
esteemed in Richmond for his talents and social accomplishments." 

Wirtz, Captain H., of Andersonville Prison. — For many years after 
the Civil War, Andersonville Prison served as the outstanding symbol 
of the atrocities practiced upon Union prisoners by the Southern 
Confederacy. The prison was commanded by Captain Wirtz, who 
was subsequently tried by a court martial at Washington and hanged. 
General Lee's nephew, and his biographer, has stated that General Lee 
used his influence to save him by showing that Wirtz was not 
primarily responsible for the sufferings of Union prisoners under his 
care, but that these were in a large measure due to the blockade 
against Southern ports, which prevented the landing of medicines 
and supplies. Because of his name, Wirtz has been cited by Prof. 
John D. Lawson, of Columbia, Mo., and others, as a typical personal 
embodiment of German brutality. Mr. Louis Benecke, a prominent 
attorney, of Brunswick, Mo., who himself was for seven months a 
Union prisoner in a Confederate prison, and who afterwards became 
the historian of the Association of Ex-Union Prisoners of War, has 
shown that Wirtz was not a native of Germany. Mr. Benecke says: 
"As the record shows, his grandfather was a French wine merchant 
at Bonnerville, France, and his name was there spelled with a 'V 

247 



instead of a *W.' The father of Wirtz located in Switzerland, near 
Geneva; and while there changed his name to Wirtz, conforming to 
the phonetic of the French 'V.' It is further shown that the mother of 
Captain H. Wirtz was a French Italian. A prisoner of German 
descent, believing Wirtz to be a German, applied to him for a favor, 
and insinuated that his nationality entitled him to some consideration, 
to which Wirtz replied, 'Je ne suis allemagne; je suis Suis.' Wirtz 
at no time or place ever claimed to be anything but a Swiss or French 
descent." 

Wistar, Caspar. — In 1717 emigrated to America from Hilspach, 
Germany, where he was born in 1696, and established what is supposed 
to be the first glass factory in America in New Jersey, thirty miles 
from Philadelphia. (It is believed that an earlier glass factory was 
established by Germans in Virginia.) 

Zane, Elizabeth. — Described as the handsome and vivacious daughter 
of Col. Zane (Zahn), founder of Wheeling, W. Va. In 1782 a fort 
near Zane's loghouse on the site of the present city was attacked by a 
band of British soldiers and 186 Indian savages. The defenders of the 
fort were reduced from 42 to 12, and as the supply of powder was 
running low, the little garrison seemed doomed. The enemy was 
covering every approach to Zane's loghouse, about sixty yards distant, 
where a full keg of powder was stored. It was to get this powder that 
Miss Zane responded when volunteers were called for, arguing that 
not a man could be spared while a girl would not be missed. Despite 
every protest she set out on her daring journey, leisurely opened the 
back gate and crossed the ground as coolly as though for a stroll. 
The British and Indians were dumbfounded, and did not realize what 
her plan was until she returned, carrying the keg under a table cloth. 
They then opened fire on her, several bullets passing through her 
clothing, but the heroic girl reached the blockhouse unscathed and 
enabled the defenders to hold out until relief came. 

Ziegler, David, Revolutionary Soldier and Indian Fighter. — Amer- 
ican soldier and first mayor of Cincinnati; born at Heidelberg, 
August 18, 1748; served under General Weismann in the Russian army 
under Catharine II and took part in the Turkish-Russian campaign 
which ended with the capture of the Krim in 1774. Came to America 
in the same year and settled in Lancaster, Pa. 

Joined the battalion of General William Thompson which appeared 
before Boston, August 2, 1775, where it was placed under command of 
General Washington. Ziegler was adjutant and the soul of the bat- 
talion, more than half of which was composed of German Americans, 
and which was the second regiment, after that of Massachusetts, to 
be enlisted under Washington's standard. 

248 



Ziegler served throughout the War of Independence as an officer and 
was repeatedly mentioned for distinguished service. On account of 
his ability was appointed by General St. Clair, Commissioner-General 
for the Department of Pennsylvania. Rendered great service in drill- 
ing troops and introducing discipline. Major Denny, in his diary, 
refers to him in these words: "As a disciplinarian, he has no superior 
in the whole army." 

After the Revolution he resided at Carlisle, Pa., until the outbreak 
of the Indian War in the West, when he served as captain in the then 
existing only regiment of regulars under Col. Harmar. His own com- 
pany was composed of a majority of Pennsylvania Germans. Manned 
Fort Harmar (Marietta, O.) ; built Fort Finney at the mouth of the 
Big Miami, and subsequently took part in the expedition of General 
George Roger Clark against the Kickapoos on the Wabash, and in 
1790, in the disastrous expedition of Gen. Harmar against the Indians 
on the upper Miami. 

In the battle of the Maumee he distinguished himself for personal 
bravery, and St. Clair dispatched Ziegler with two companies to 
succor the distressed settlers in and around Marietta following the 
defeat of Harmar. He soon obtained the upper hand of the hordes 
of Indians, and in restoring order gained such decisive advantages that 
he was hailed as the most popular soldier in the Northwest. In the 
fall of 1791, Ziegler took part in the bloody and disastrous campaign 
under St. Clair, in which he commanded a battalion of Federal troops. 
Being prevented from taking part in the actual battle by reason of 
special service elsewhere, was assigned to cover the headlong retreat 
of the demoralized troops, and by ceaseless vigilance and strict disci- 
pline succeeded in the face of furious attacks by the Indians, drunk 
with victory, in leading the scattered American forces back to Fort 
Washington (Cincinnati). This feat earned for him the unqualified 

praise of all concerned, and materially increased his popularity. 

• 
His dash and efficiency in the campaign of the previous year had 
caused his advancement to the rank of major in the regular army, and 
new honors awaited him. When General St. Clair, as commander-in- 
chief, was summoned to Philadelphia to defend his conduct before 
Congress, he invested Ziegler with the "ad interim" authority of 
commander-in-chief of the whole army, passing over the heads of 
officers of higher rank, Wilkinson, Butler and Armstrong. Thus a 
German, for a period of six weeks, acted as commander-in-cTiief of the 
American army. This distinction resulted in a cabal of native officers 
to get rid of a detested "foreigner," and Col. Jacob Wilkinson (after- 
ward general and highest commanding officer), and Col. Armstrong 
preferred charges of insubordination and drunkenness against the 
veteran. 

249 



Ziegler in disgust thereupon resigned his command and retired from 
the army. But the people insisted on testifying their admiration and 
loyalty to their hero, and when Cincinnati in 1802 became an in- 
corporated town he was elected its first mayor by a large majority 
and subsequently re-elected "in recognition," according to Judge Bur- 
nett in "Notes on the Settlement of the Northwest Territory," "of 
his services in protecting the settlements in 1791 and 1792 as well as in 
reprisal for the unjust treatment accorded him by the government." 
Ziegler died in Cincinr^ati, September 24, 1811, universally mourned 
by his fellow citizens. 

Zenger, John Peter, and the Freedom of the Press. — Noted in Amer- 
ican history as the man who fought to a successful issue the problem 
of the freedom of the press in this country. Came over as a boy in 
the Palatine migration and was an apprentice to Bradford in Phila- 
delphia.' Established the New York "Weekly Journal," November 5, 
1733. Was arrested and imprisoned by Governor Cosby for his 
political criticisms; the paper containing them was publicly burned by 
the hangman, and the case was then thrown into the courts. Zenger 
was charged with being an immigrant who dared to attack the royal 
prerogatives and official representatives. 

Arrested in 1734, he was at first denied pen, ink and paper, not- 
withstanding which he continued to edit the "Journal" from his 
prison. The grand jury refused to find a bill for libel, and proceedings 
were instituted by the Attorney General by information. Zenger's 
defense was entrusted to Andrew Hamilton, a Quaker lawyer of 
marked ability, himself an immigrant from Ireland, who came from 
Philadelphia especially to undertake the defense. 

Zenger's case became a turning point on the great question of the 
truth justifying libel. Hamilton attacked the claim of the Governor, 
denounced the practice of information for libel, and declared that this 
was not the cause of a poor printer, but of liberty, which concerned 
every American. The triumphant result obtained by Hamilton has 
made his name famous in American jurisprudence. Zenger's trial 
overthrew the effort of arbitrary power to suppress free speech, to 
control courts of justice, to rule by royal prerogative. The jury turned 
the judge out of court and Zenger was sustained in the right of 
criticising the administration, alnd his criticisms were declared to be 
true and just. Zenger therefore gained for the people the freedom of 
the press, and through it their rights to deliberate and act so as best 
to secure their rights. 

Dr. William Elliot Griffis, in "The Romance of American Coloniza- 
tion," comments on the case in the words: "Thus one of the greatest 
of all victories in behalf of law and freedom ever won on this conti- 
nent was secured." 

250 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Page 

A — Adams, President John Quincy; on First Treaty with Prussia- 2^9 

Alabama, The; Confederate Cruiser 51, 111 

Allied Nations in War 11 

Alsace-Lorraine 11 

No Desire for French Annexation; Linked with the German 

Empire; German Character of - 12 

General Rapp Demands Independence of; Germans Deported 

from 14 

France Distrusts Her Own People in 15 

American Bearers of Foreign Titles 27 

"American Liberal, The" 70 

Americans Saved from Tampico Mob by German Cruiser 19 

Americans Not an English People 16 

William Elliot Grififis Quoted 178-179 

Prof. Albert B. Faust 16 

James Russell Lowell; Douglas Campbell 17 

Scott Nearing 18 

James A. Garfield; Charles E. Hughes 19 

American School Children and Foreign Propaganda 29 

Americanization Committee of Massachusetts on; Macauley 

on George HI; King George Not Alone Responsible .... 21 

George Haven Putnam's London Address 22 

Owen Wister in London "Times" 23 

Armstead, Major George; Defender of Ft. McHenry 20 

Astor, John Jacob; American Pathfinder 25 

Athcrton, Gertrude; on Experience in Germany 188 

Atrocities, Belgian and French ^8 

Melville E. Stone on 29 

Rev. J. F. Stillimans on; London "Globe" on 30 

London "Universe" on; John T. McCutcheon on; Irvin S. 

Cobb on; Emily S. Hobhouse on 31 

Rev. J. F. Matthews on 32 

Horace Green on; Prof. Kellogg on; Ernest P. Bicknell on. . ZZ 
American Correspondents on; Premier Asquith Denies .... 34 
State Department Refuses Information on; Church Authori- 
ties Investigate *. 35 

William K. Draper Quoted; Why Created Z^ 

Same Stories Told in Civil War Period; Post Oflfice Depart- 
ment Prohibits Denial of Zl 

R — Bancroft, George; on Germans in American Revolution 105 

Negotiates Memorable Agreement with Bismarck 38 

Refers Vancouver Boundary Dispute to German Emperor; 

Advises Friendship With Germany 39 

Beck, James M. 199 

Baralong, English Pirate Ship 39 

Becker, Alfred L., Deputy Attorney General of New York, In- 
vestigates German Propaganda; Investigated by Senator 

Reed 71 

Employed Ex-Convicts Th 



Page 

Becker, Prof. Carl L.; on Composition of American People 103 

Bernstorff, German Ambassador, Quotes Col. House 131 

Berger, Mrs. Frances, Victim of Mob 67 

Berliner, Emile, Inventor of the Microphone 40 

Blaine, James G., Quotes English Sentiment During Civil War. . 112 

Blockade, "Illegal, Ineffective and Indefensible" 42 

Blue Laws of Virginia ' 40 

Boers, The, English Treatment of i . . . 40 

"Bombing Maternity Hospitals" 44 

Brant, Indian Chief, Destroys German Settlements 135, 175 

r — Campbell, Douglas, on Composition of American People .... 17 

Carnegie, Andrew, on British-American Union 197-8 

Cavell, Edith, Executed by Germans; Execution Justified by Col. 

E. R. West 46 

Chamberlain, Senator, Speech on English Threats 74 

Cheradame, Andre, French Propagandist, Conspires Against 

President Wilson 187 

Christiansen, Hendrik, True Explorer of the Hudson River .... 48 

Clemenceau, Premier Georges, Blames France for War of 1870-71 241 

Cobb, Sanford H., Story of the Palatmes 104 

Concord, The, Brought Germantown Settlers 121 

Concord Society, The; Objects of 47 

Cramb, Prof. J. A., on Germany's Lofty Spirit 51 

Cramps, Shipbuilders 24 

Creasy, Prof. E. S., on the German Race IS 

Creel and the Sisson Documents 44 

Cromberger, Johann 45 

Custer, General George A., a Hessian Descendant 45 

IJ — Daimler, Gottlieb, Inventor of the Gas Engine 138 

DeKalb, Major General Johann von 48 

"Dial, The," on French Propaganda 187 

Dillon, Dr. E. J., on Alsace-Lorraine 11 

Dorsheimer, Hon William 49 

Dual Citizenship 49 

Dutch and German 49 

Danzig 60, 85 

F — "English-Speaking Union" 198 

Earling, Albert J., Railway President 50 

Eckert, Thomas 50 

Election of 1916 and the League of Nations Covenants 51 

President Wilson's Colloquy with Senator McCumber 56 

Foreign Minister Hanotaux Promised American Aid in 1914 57 

Eliot, Prof. Charles W., on German Civilization 50 

England Plundered American Commerce 51 

Refuses Loan to United States in Civil War 110 

Threatens United States Through Canada 73 

English Government Offers $8 for American Scalps 136 

View of Paul Jones 139 

First to Use Poison Gas 192 

Tribute to Germany's Lofty Spirit 51 

Opinion of Prussians in 1815 58 

ii 



Page 

Investment in Confederate Bonds • . •• 114 

Propaganda in Public Schools 20 

White Book Justifies Invasion of Belgium 207 

Statesmen Denounce American Union 113 

Erzberger, Appeal to Conscience of America 90 

Exports and Imports in 1914 58 

Espionage Act, Vote on 58 

How Administered 59 

Report of Civil Liberties Bureau; New York "Sun" Quoted 63 
Friends of German Democracy; Mrs. William Jay; German 

Masons in New Jersey 64 

P — Fisher, Admiral, Justifies German Submarines 212 

Foreign Residents Assured as to their Investments 230 

Fourteen Points, The; History of 86 

France's Historic Relations with the United States 76 

Franklin, Benjamin 80 

Alarmed by German Immigration 81 

Praises German Population 83 

Friends of German Democracy 64 

Free Masons in New Jersey Against Language Edict 64 

Frederick the Great and the American Colonies 84 

Prevents Russian Alliance with England Against Colonies; 

Offers American Cruisers Refuge at Danzig 85 

Fresch, Hermann, Sulphur King 224 

Fricke, Albert Paul, Tried for Treason and Acquitted 67 

Fritchie, Barbara, Immortalized by Whittier 90 

Q — Gas, Poison, First Employed by English 192 

George III, a "German King"? 20 

Macaulay on 21 

George, Lloyd, Denounces Atrocities Against Boers 41 

German American Captains of Industry 94 

German Element in American Life 102 

Mechanics in Jamestown Settlement 91 

In Virginia 105 

Moravians First Settlers in Ohio 107 

On Indian Border in Pennsylvania 108 

Settle Frankfort and Louisville, Ky 109 

Ardent patriots in Revolution 105, 109, 175, 181 

Early Western Border Occupied by 108 

Protest Against Slavery 180 

First Proclamation of Independence 175 

Praise for Their Republican Virtues 180 

In Civil War 114 

In Confederate Army 120 

Ideals of Liberty 154 

Women Spies Executed by French 49 

In American Art, Science and Literature 91 

Praised by Franklin 83 , 

Praised by Washington 245 

Praised by Jefferson 141 

First Newspapers 91 

George Bancroft on ' 105 

iii 



Page 

Subscriptions to Liberty Loan 153 

In Massachusetts Bay Colony 156 

Keeps Missouri in the'Union 159 

German Emperor Decides Vancouver Boundary Dispute in Our 

Favor 121 

Germantown Settlement 39 

Germany; Why Strengthened Her Army 124 

Treatment of France After War of 1870-71 • • : 90 

Conduct During Civil War 110 

Buys $600,000,000 of Union Bonds Ill 

Bancroft Quoted 39 

Sends Relief During Civil War 90 

Godfrey, Inventor of Quadrant 178 

Gould, B. A.; Civil War Statistics 115 

Grey, Sir Edward, on Humanity in War 132 

Griffis, Dr. William Elliot, on German Element 104 

Early German Mechanics 105 

On Jacob Leisler 146 

On Teutonic Influence 178-9 

On Bay Colony Aristocracy .- 181 

On Confusing Germans with Dutch 49 

Guizot, on German Love of Liberty 154 

II — Hanotaux, Foreign Minister, on Assurances Given France in 

1914 by American Ambassadors 56 

Hagner, Peter 124 

Haiman, Louis, "Swordmaker of the Confederacy" 227 

Harris, Frank, on Germany and England 155 

Hartford Convention, The 124 

Hempel 125 

"Herald," New York, Urges Hanging of German Americans .... 125 

Hereshoffs and Cramps 125 

Herkimer, General Nicholas, Hero of Oriskany 125 

Herve, Gustave, on Alsace Lorraine 12 

On Poison Gas 192 

Hessians, The 125 

Swell Jackson's Stonewall Brigade; Where Settled 129 

General Custer, Descended from .45 

Hillegas, Michael, First Treasurer of the United States 129 

House, Col. E. M.; Reputed Author of "Philip Dru, Administrator" 130 

Influences President on Surrender of Saar Valley 131 

Friend of Lloyd George; Attended School in England 130 

Hitchcock, Senator GilbcFt M., on Seizure of Alien Property .... 232 

J — Ibanez, Vincente Blasco, French Propaganda Agent 185 

Ideals of Liberty 154 

Illiteracy of Contending Countries 132 

Immigration 132 

Germantown 177 

Indians, Tories and German Settlements 125 

Invention of Telephone, Gas Engine, Photographic Lenses, etc. . . 138 

"^'Issues and Events" 69 

J — Jaeger, Pastor, Murdered for Being German 67 

Jay, Mrs. William, Leads Campaign to Suppress German Music 64 

iv 



Page 

Jefferson. Thomas, on German Immigrants 141 

On English Hyphenates 140 

On Virginia Blue Laws 184 

On Longing for an English King 24 

Jones, John Paul; English View of 139 

if — Kapp, Frederich, History of American People 102-4 

King, Senator, of Utah, Bill Canceling Charter of the German 

American Alliance 69 

Knobel, Caspar, Captures Jefferson Davis 142 

Knownothing Party • 142 

Koerner, Gustav, on Political Character of German Americans • • 143 

Krech, Alvin W. 

Kudlich, Dr. Hans, the Peasant Emancipator 143 

I — Langlotz, Prof. C. A., Author of "Old Nassau" 145 

Lee, Lighthouse Harry 14S 

Lehman, Philip Theodore, William Penn's Secretary 145 

Lehmann. Frederick William 145 

Leisler, Jacob, First Martyr to Cause of American Lidependence • 145 

Lieber, Francis • . 146 

Founder, "Encyclopedia Americana" 147 

Legal Advisor to Lincoln Government; Author of "Instruc- 
tions for the Armies in the Field" 148 

Lincoln, Abraham, of German Extraction? . , • • . 148 

London "Times" in 1862 • 113 

Long, Frances L., One of Custer's Sergeants and Survivor Gree- 
ley Arctic Expedition 152 

Lossing, Benson J., on Our Debt to France 77 

On Jacob Leisler 146 

On Conrad Weiser 245 

Lowell, James Russell; American People Not English 153 

Ludwig, Christian, Purveyor of the Revolutionary Army 153 

W — McCarthy, Justin, on Cruise of the Alabama; Recognition of 

Confederacy Ill 

On Schleswig-Holstein Question 210 

McCumber, Senator, Asks President About Our Entrance Into 

the War 56 

McNeil, Walter S., on German Constitution 155 

On German Civil Law 157 

Macaulay, Lord, on German Immigrant Settlers 104 

On George III 21 

Marix, Rear Admiral Adolph 156 

Massow, Baron von. Member of Moseby's Brigade 156 

Memminger, Christoph Gustav, Secretary of the Treasury in the 

Confederate Cabinet 157 

Menken, S. Stanwood, Organizer and President National Security 

League 171-2 

Mergenthaler, Ottmar, Inventor of the Linotype Machine 157 

Military Establishments of the Warring Nations in 1914 157 

Minnewit, Peter, Purchased Island of Manhattan from Indians . • 158 

Missouri, How Kept in the Union 159 

Montesqieu, on Birth of Liberty 154 

V 



Page 

Morgan, J. Pierpont 15S 

Related to Viscount Lewis Harcourt 159 

Accused in Congress of Controlling Press 190 

Muhlenberg, Heinrich Melchior, Founder Lutheran Church in 
America; Frederick August, First Speaker House of Repre- 
sentative; Peter, General; Career of 161 



TW" — Nagel, Charles, Secretary of Commerce and Labor 169 

Nast, Thomas, America's Greatest Cartoonist; Kills the Tweed 

Ring; Grant's Opinion of 169 

National Security League; Objects of, Backers of 169 

Representative Cooper of Wisconsin on 170 

Interference with New York Public Schools 171 

How Organized; Disbursements by 172 

Denounced in Congress 171-.^ 

Neutrality; President Wilson on, in Mexican Relations 172 

New Ulm Massacre '• . 173 

Northclifife, Lord; Control of American Newspapers 174 

A— Ohio; Germans First to Settle, First White Child in 107 

Orth, Charles D., President National Security League 171-2 

Osterhaus, General Peter Joseph, Record in Union Army 174 

His Pension Canceled 175 

Overman Bill 54 

P— Palatines, the; Sanford H. Cobb on 104 

Judge Benton Quoted 105 

Declaration of Independence Antedates that of Mecklenburg 175 

Its Signers ' 176-7 

Panin, Count Nikolai I, Russian Premier, Bribed by Frederick the 

Great 85 

Pastorius, Franz Daniel, Founder of Germantown 121-177 

Agitation Against Unveiling of Monument to 179 

Author of First Protest Against Slavery 180 

Pathfinders, German American 191 

Penn, William, and Crefeld Immigrants 121 

His Mother a Dutch Woman 193 

Pennypacker, Ex-Governor Samuel Whitaker » . . . 121 

Pilgrim Society 193 

Poison Gas; First LTsed at Colenso; Fench Testimony 192 

Prager, Robert B., Lynched by Anti-German Mob (il 

Pitcher, Molly; Fam.ous Heroine of German Descent 190 

Press Attacked in Congress 190 

Propaganda in the United States 185 

Vincente Blasco Ibanez, French Agent 185 

Louis Tracy, English Agent; How Conducted 186 

French Described by "The Dial"; Andre Cheradame 187 

Overman Committee; Gertrude Atherton 188 

Prussian Constitution, Praised by President Wilson 156 

Prussia, First Treaty with 229 

Puritans; Land in 1620; Great Migration; Freemen; Hang 

Quakers and Witches; Blue Laws 184 

vi 



Page 
Putnam, George Haven, Repudiates the American Revolution; 
Proposes to Rewrite Text Books of Amehican History in 

Public Schools 22 

Regrets American Independence from England 23 



Q 



— Quakers Hanged in Bay Colony 184 

Quitm.an, General J. A., in Alexican War 194 



W — Rassieur, Leo 205 

Reis, Philipp, Inventor of the Telephone 130 

Representation in Congress 194 

Ringling, Al 203, 20'' 

Rittenhouse, David, First Great American Scientist 204 

Roosevelt, Theodore 205 

Roebling, John August, Famous Bridge Builder 205 

Russia Approached by England for Alliance Against the Colonies 85 

Rhodes, Cecil; Text of Secret Will to Reclaim the United States- 195 

Sinclair Kennedy, on Pian 196-7 

Whitelaw Reid, on Unity with English Government 196 

Andrew Carnegie, on British-American Union; Rhodes 

Scholarships 197 

General Pershing's Statement: James M. Beck's Statement 199 
AdmJral Sims's Guildhall Speech; New York "Globe" Quotes 

Ambassador Page 200 

Prof. Roland G. Usher, on Secret Understanding; Colonial 

Secretary Chamberlain Quoted 201 

Joseph H. Choate's Toast to the King 202 

C — Sauer, Christopher, Fam.ous Colonial Printer • . 217 

Scheffauer, Herman Georgre, American P^et 215 

Schell, Johann Christian: An Episode of the Early Border 215 

Schley, Admiral Winfield Scott; Rescue of Lt. Greeley 216 

Schleswig-Holstein, "One and Indivisible" 209 

Wish to be German; Revolution Against Denmark, 1848 . • • • 210 

Cradle of Purest Germanism 211 

Total Danish-Speaking Population in Germany 212 

Scraps of Paper 216 

Schurz. Carl, on German Revolution of 1848 214 

On German Element in the United States 102 

Schreiner. Geors:e A., on American Passport Discriminations ... 66 

On Use of Poison Gas at Colenso 192 

On Lusitania Sinking 242 

Secret Treaties 89 

Seward, Secretary William H.. Expresses Thanks to Prussia .... 112 

Slavery, First Protest Against 180 

Starving Germany: Result of, and Casualties 217 

State Department Note of Assurance, February 8, 1917 230 

Steinmetz. Charles P., Famous Electrician 217 

Steuben. Baron Frederick von 220 

Sutter, the Romance of a California Pioneer 225 

First to Hoist American Flag to Stay; Founds New Switzer- 
land on Sacramento River; Alvarado Land Grant 225 

vii 



Page 
Sides with Santa Anna; Lays Out Town of Sutterville, now 
Sacramento; Visited by Major Fremont; Hoists the 
American Flag on His Fort; Gold Discovered on His 

Ranch by Marshall 226 

Sutter Ruined; Dies Poor in Pennsylvania; Tribute to 227 

"Swordmaker of the Confederacy" . 227 

T — Taft, William H., on Religious Intolerance t^. . . 185 

Praises Kaiser 208 

"Times," London, Denounces United States 113 

Advocates British Propaganda in the United States 24 

Titled Americans 27 

Tolstoy on American Liberty 228 

Tracy, Louis, Head of English Propaganda Bureau 186 

Treaties of 1799 and 1828, with Germany 229-30 

Treaty, Commercial, with Germany, and How Observed; Presi- 
dent John Quincy Adams on First Treaty; Treaties of 

1799-1828 229 

State Department Assures Foreign Residents 230 

Alien Custodianship Aired in Congress; Senator Hitchcock's 
Momentous Statement; President Wilson's Remarks of 

April 2, 1917; List of Persons Whose Property Was Seized 232 

Property of Wives of Aliens Seized 233 

Tryon County Committee of Safety 175 

IJ— Usher, Prof. Roland G., on "Understanding" with England . .200-2- 

V — Viereck, George Sylvester 71, 92 

Villard, Henry 236 

Virginia Blue Laws 184 

Vote on War in Congress 236 

^— War of 1870-71 240 

War Lies Repudiated by English Paper 241 

Washington's Body Guard 244 

Tribute to Germans 245 

West, Col. E. R., Justifies Execution of Edith Cavell 46 

Whittier, John Greenleaf. Poem on Germantown Settlement .... 180 

Williams, Deantor John Sharp, on Fighting Canada Id 

Wilson, Woodrow, President; on Our Debt to France 78 

On His Fourteen Points 88 

Friendship for German People 90 

German Intellectualism, 1917 and 1919 155 

Praises Prussian Constitution 156 

On "Best Practices of Nations" 172 

Weiser, Conrad, Pioneer and Statesm.an 245 

Wetzel. Lou, Indian Fighter 246 

Wirt, William, Famous Jurist and Author 247 

Wistar, Caspar 247 

Wirtz, Captain Henry, of Andersonville Prison 247 

2 — Zeisberger, David, Founds First Christian Community in Ohio 107 

Zenger. John Peter, and the Freedom of the Press 250 

Ziegler^ David, Revolutionary Soldier and Indian Fighter 248 

Early Border Heroine 248 



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